Getting over It
by MacyBear17
Summary: Parker said 'Get over it'... But he hasn't been able to. Will this colossal misunderstanding between the hitter and the thief tear the team apart?... An angst filled Eliot-Parker romance
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N: Hi!... So I've finally gotten around to the process of converting one of my prompt based ficlets to a full length story under drjones' orders... :P**_

_**So this one goes out to drjones, for giving me such an awesome prompt and situation to work with... and also for convincing me that this fic deserved to get a better finish... so here goes... it's going to be a long, rocky journey, but i hope you're all gonna be completely satisfied with the final product once we're done with the process... (fingers crossed)**_

_**If you want to read the rest of the fics in the prompt drabble list, plz visit 'His thief Her hitter'... and don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas for more prompts  
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_**So here goes...**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 01<strong>

Eliot Spencer was a man of few words. He preferred to let his actions do the talking for him instead of using words to convey his opinions. Words, he'd found were often empty sounds, devoid of any meaning because most of the time, people who spoke them never really meant what they were saying.

Words could be used to hurt but they could also be used to heal... to fix things. Something he'd almost never tried. Or rather, been successful at... his debacle with Aimee was all the proof he needed of that. But right now, the hitter really really wanted to use certain words, with a focused intent... to hurt. He wanted to hurt the crazy thief as much as she'd hurt him. He wanted to take away that feeling of safety that she said she got around them. He wanted her to feel something... for once.

They all knew that Parker was... how should I say it, different. The things that affected most people, most normal people, didn't seem to have any effect on the crazy blonde. In fact, there had been very few times she seemed affected by anything and Eliot wanted one of those times to be now.

Eliot Spencer never hit girls... not even when they hit him. Okay, Mikel was an exception but come on, she wasn't a girl... not in the frail, damsel in distress sense of the word. Well, neither was Parker, but she wasn't an amazon like the female hitter had been. Even then, Eliot wanted to make sure that she knew his sentiments on her actions.

It almost never happened that Eliot lost his temper with someone on the team and most of the times it was Hardison that found himself as the focus of the hitter's ire. But even he knew that Eliot could never just lose it and hurt any of them and any remaining vestiges of anger always gave way when the due apologies came his way. Of that the team was sure of... like rock solid sure. But right now, the idea of hurting the thief for treating him the way she was, was quite tempting to the retrieval specialist.

It hadn't even been the crowbar thing or the running him over with a car, what had gotten to Eliot the most was the fact that she had acted so nonchalant afterwards, so dismissive of his injuries and his anger towards her... as if it didn't matter, as if _**he**_ didn't matter. As if his position as the team's hitter was just that... a job. That any of them could do. Worse, when he'd asked her about the way she'd acted, she told him to 'get over it'. _**Get Over It**_.

Eliot had barely controlled himself from lunging out at the small thief and laying a right hook on the smooth, unblemished skin of her face. But he knew that he wasn't a man who used violence to solve all his problems.

Sure, he was a hitter by profession and could take down the best of them without batting an eyelid when the situation called for it, but no way was he going to let a crazy blonde squirt reduce him to being a neanderthal over this. Had it been Hardison or even Nate who had commented that way, they would've probably needed an ambulance after he was done with them.

He busted his ass everyday so that the rest of the team could be safe and all he wanted was to be given enough respect for the job he did. Eliot had forgotten how many times he'd had to take men down to keep his team safe, how many times he'd had to take a hit that was meant for one of his team members... or how many times he'd had to let himself be hurt so that he could buy them some time to get away.

He'd never complained about it or expected anything to be done for him in return. Eliot knew that as the hitter, it was his job to give as well as take hits for the team and he was okay with it. Till Parker had, with one sentence in essence, taken away all the importance his job held for the team. She'd acted as if it was a matter of almost no consequence and that _**he**_ was the one who was making a mountain out of a molehill.

The straw that had broken the camel's back was when she'd turned from her hunt for fortune cookies to look at him with an expression that he knew very well. He knew this because it was the one he'd almost always had on his face when she ended up doing something crazy... the one that said 'There's something wrong with you'.

For a second when she turned, he thought he'd seen concern in her eyes but a mere second later it had melted into her usual uncomprehending blank stare and Eliot knew that it had been just wishful thinking on his part. Why he was even wishing for her concern about his well being he didn't know. What he did know was that somewhere along the way since they'd all met due to Dubenich, these four people had made their own little spaces in Spencer's life and descended enmasse around the region of his heart.

Nate had always been a friend in Eliot's opinion. Even though it had taken the mastermind quite some time before he reconciled himself with the idea of being a thief himself and acknowledged the strong bond of friendship and camaraderie that had grown between them by then.

Sophie... she was the female version of Nate. Eliot had never thought he would be so close to a woman without having taken her to bed or being related to her. But Sophie had proved to be in a league of her own and Eliot had come to treasure the moments he'd spent with the talented grifter, even though the period of her leaving the team had caused a sizable rift in their relationship.

Hardison, whether the hitter liked to acknowledge it or not, had firmly encroached the position of the geeky younger brother that Eliot had always wanted but never had. Alec Hardison might be the single most irritating excuse for a human being on the planet but Eliot wouldn't change a thing about the man or their relationship... except maybe his unhealthy obsession with Orange soda, junk food, computer games and a certain blonde thief... maybe if he might add in something about a liking for fishing, some concept of what good music was and just the idea of what a man's personal space was, Hardison could possibly make the ideal Spencer younger brother.

And then there was Parker. The exasperating blonde thief was what kept Eliot up most days... dreaming of her seemed to be dominating his night nowadays... not that he would admit that even under torture. The dreams had started after the thing with the Faberge egg... the Zanzibar Marketplace thingamajig... That dress... The hitter'd had a hard time maintaining his concentration during that job.

A blonde in a pink dress had always been his weakness... I know, quite cliche but who cares. But this blonde in that pink dress had just summarily blown him away. He'd never thought he'd ever think about Parker that way. I mean he liked women... more than liked them, but he worked with Sophie and Parker. So while they were women and quite beautiful at that, they'd never registered on Eliot's radar. Rather, he made sure they did not, under any circumstances. Work and pleasure never mixed and Eliot knew this fact very, very well.

But that night in the museum, Parker's itty bitty pink dress and that fact that he knew she was hiding that priceless Faberge egg somewhere underneath that skin tight sheath had blown all of his notions about work ethics away. The world's best retrieval specialist brought down by a handful of pink fabric masquerading as a dress... shameful he knew, but man! what a way to go. Or rather, what a way it would've been to go had he done anything about the major revelation he'd had that night.

Eliot knew that there was no way he'd ever do anything about his... feelings. First of all, it was Parker... 'nuffsaid. Secondly, there was the team... he wouldn't do anything to damage the delicate balance that they'd managed to strike between their professional and private lives. Third and maybe most important personally, there was Hardison to think about. So yeah, there was no way he would do anything about it.

But try telling that to his brain that seemed bent on exploring every bit of his Parker revelation in his dreams. He'd somehow managed to bring both his body and his mind under control and function his way through the office and the various cases they dealt with.

But now, Parker seemed to be acting in this bizarre apathetic fashion and he'd just let it get under his skin. As it is, the iron control he'd held on his emotions was already shot due to the effort it took to act normally around her, he couldn't just let it slide when, after beaning him with a crowbar once and running him down with a car the other time, she started to act as if none of it mattered.

Now this was it. Thus far and no further. Eliot knew that he had a responsibility to the team and that he couldn't just cut and run at the first niggle of a problem but he now had no qualms against cutting himself off from the crazy blonde. He would of course still have to work with her... It wasn't gonna be that tough. He wasn't much of a conversationalist so most of the time he could get away with not opening his mouth at all. All he had to do now was make sure that the rest of his simultaneously perceptive and emotionally empty crew didn't get pulled into the drama. He'd decided his plan of action, now all that remained was to put it into practice.

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><p>The team had just gotten back from running a con on that slimy car salesman... what she privately liked to call The Boost Job, and Parker for one, was exhausted. It wasn't so much the boosting cars rather than the subterfuge and hiding that got to her. Parker could always hide, ever since she was a child, she was extremely adept at making herself as small as possible and fitting her body into places that would've been deemed too small by others. She liked hiding in small, dark places where no one would search for her, and watch other people quietly.<p>

But this kind of hiding was new to her. She'd never learnt to hide her feelings and emotions before. Whatever Parker felt, Parker said. But this time, somehow, something was making her hesitate and clam up. It was almost as if she couldn't talk about it and that made her feel very uncomfortable... very un-Parkerly.

It had all started when Sophie had commented offhandedly one day while they were all at Nate's loft for lack of anything else to do. The grifter had just said something about how she and Eliot were both uncomfortable being touched by anyone but each other. Parker knew very well about the first part. She never liked being touched... neither did Eliot.

They both needed to be given adequate advance notice even by their team members before being touched, even then they both stiffened and squirmed uncomfortably during the period of contact. If not, Parker probably would stiffen and move away and Eliot might end up breaking your fingers before they landed on his person. Hardison's disturbing preference for 'hugging it out' had almost gotten him killed atleast a couple of dozen times till now. It spoke volumes about Eliot's self control that the hacker was still alive, functioning and without a single scratch on his lanky form.

But she'd never noticed that she and Eliot never seemed to have any sort of problems with touching each other, or being in each other's personal space. Small touches, nothing else... a tap on the shoulder to get the other person's attention, a guiding hand on her arm, a slight poke to his side to make him do what she wanted, a soft touch on the small of her back to guide her when she wasn't a 100% fine. With Eliot, Parker was able to take liberties that she took with no one else and to everyone's surprise, the hitter let her.

There were very few times in her life that Parker had felt truly safe. And most of the times she felt it recently, was in the company of the retrieval specialist. Sitting next to his solid presence during meetings, touching him absently and helping out in the kitchen were some ways in which the thief had unconsciously started enjoying his presence.

And she might've never noticed, never reacted if it hadn't been for Sophie's offhand comment. The grifter seemed to think of it as something quite amusing rather than the life changing revelation it was for the younger blonde. It made her reevaluate whatever she thought she knew about the relationship between her and Eliot. Even though she stopped herself from reacting too much to the comment, at least outwardly, inside she was almost screaming to herself at the conclusion she came to.

Somehow, somewhere along the way, entirely without her permission, she'd started to feel comfortable around him, she'd done the worst thing and started to have feelings for the hitter. And they weren't the normal kind of warm fuzzies that she had when she thought about her team, her family. These feelings made her feel hot and cold at the same time, made her stomach clench uncomfortably and made her feel itchy, like she was trying to climb out of her own skin or something. In short, they had her going crazy and she didn't know what it was or what to do about it.

She found herself spending all of her spare time either watching the hitter as discreetly as possible or thinking about him. It was highly distracting and not something she needed in her life right now... or ever. She'd thought she was comfortable with the nameless, faceless one night stands she'd had till now, but of late, she found herself thinking about what it would be like if she had a proper relationship... a boyfriend. And that role was always filled by the hitter in her dreams.

As uncomfortable as her feelings made her, they couldn't be ignored. But neither could they be expressed. Parker wasn't as clueless as she made herself out to be. It had been a survival tactic she'd learned when she was small. Make people think you don't know much and they usually made the mistake of underestimating you. Parker might not understand her own emotions but she understood what other people were like and what they felt.

And she knew that if Eliot came to know about her feelings for him and he didn't reciprocate them, as most probably he wouldn't, the delicate balance that the team functioned on would be destroyed. That was the last thing she wanted to do. After so many years she had found a place where she fit, a family for herself, where she could be herself around people who liked her for who she was and didn't judge her for what she did or had done previously.

This new family was the most important thing to Parker now and there was no way she was going to do anything that might upset the situation in any way. She needed this platform to fall back on and she wasn't going to destroy this safe little haven of hers at any cost, even if it meant not exploring the tantalizing possibility of normality... of being with someone in every sense of the word.

She was going to have to make sure that this miasma of feelings roiling inside her never got out. Whatever it took to save her family from any sort of trouble, she would do it. They had given her so much, now it was her turn to do something for them. If only to stop herself from upsetting the balance by expressing her emotions, Parker would make sure that nothing hurt them... Eliot kept them safe, she would keep him safe. If it meant pushing him away, making sure that she couldn't break under pressure, she would do it. It didn't matter if something in the region of her chest hurt at that thought, she had to keep her family safe and she would do anything to make sure it stayed that way.

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><p>It had been a day since they'd gotten back and the team was waiting on background checks for their next job. Parker had distanced herself as much as she could from the hitter, both physically and emotionally, going as far as to coldly tell him to 'get over it' when he questioned her about her mistakes in the previous jobs. She'd felt something inside her hurt some more when she saw the ever present warmth in the hitter's cerulean eyes fade out to be replaced by a chill... something so cold and remote that instinctively the thief knew that she might've done irreparable damage to their relationship.<p>

That had just been the start. Eliot had distanced himself from her, choosing a seat as far from her as possible whenever a team meeting was called or when they all hung out at Nate's loft to just relax. He didn't look at her, didn't talk to her unless completely necessary and even then, his voice lacked the customary warmth that she'd never noticed till it was gone. It was almost as if she was a stranger and not one he particularly wanted to get to know.

As much as that hurt, it hurt even more when he categorically refused to so much as acknowledge her presence during their next con. Oh he was there alright, right beside her, protecting her and the rest of the team, but it was almost as if he was a ghost... only making his presence known when it was utterly necessary.

Even when he'd had to go up against fifteen security guards who'd showed up suddenly, he hadn't made a sound. Only the various noises associated with a fight had alerted the rest of the team to Eliot's preoccupation when Parker had left the building and Eliot hadn't. Normally, she would've stayed with him, maybe used her taser on a couple of the guys and taken a couple of them down by herself, helping him with it, but now, they were both intent on ignoring each other's presence and that had resulted in their getting separated and Eliot having to face all of the guards alone.

They'd all watched in morbid fascination as the hitter had turned into a veritable fighting machine, taking down all fifteen men with precise, economical moves that somehow only served to magnify the extent of his controlled anger. Parker saw a glimpse of the beast inside of the retrieval specialist before it was expertly restrained and covered up as if it had never existed.

He'd stepped out of the building and into the waiting van as if he'd just stepped in from a casual stroll but Parker's sharp eyes had caught on to the various injuries the hitter was sporting from the confrontation. No one could fight fifteen armed guards and get away unscathed. It was obvious to her that he at least had a mild to moderate concussion by the way he was trying to focus on something but finding it difficult, a couple of cracked ribs, a broken wrist and a strained knee.

Eliot made nothing about his injuries known to his team, opting to take care of them himself when he got to his apartment. After they'd all gotten to the offices and sat through a post job meeting, the team had dispersed for the night and Eliot was thankful for the early dismissal. Wobbling just a little bit because of his concussion and cradling his left wrist that was swollen underneath his wide leather bracelet, Eliot managed to make it to the parking lot and was about to get into his truck when he found the keys snatched from his hands.

The thief, who'd snatched the keys from him slid easily through the open door of the truck into the driver's seat and patiently waited for him to get in via the passenger door, which she opened, indicating that he should get in. Eliot was almost growling in frustration and deciding that communicating with the crazy blonde was the last thing he needed with a concussion, he slammed the door and started walking in the direction of his house, a good dozen miles away.

Huffing in frustration and a little bit of concern at his slow, careful gait, Parker put the car in gear and slowly trundled after him, keeping pace with the injured hitter so that he knew she wasn't gonna just leave him to walk all the way.

"Look Eliot... I am not doing this for you... or me. I am doing this for the team. You're injured, probably have a moderate concussion and you shouldn't be driving under the circumstances okay?... So stop acting like a baby and just get in the car."

Eventually, half a mile down the road, exhaustion and pain drove the hitter to get into the car and the two of them resumed their journey towards his house, in complete silence. Once at the house, Eliot quietly held the door open for Parker, clearly indicating that she had done her duty by getting him to his home and that she should leave now.

"Look... You have a concussion and shouldn't be left alone for at least another couple of hours. I am not going anywhere and you're just going to have to deal with it."

"Parker don't make me kick you out... get out of my house... now."

Those were the first words Eliot had spoken to her in three days. His low, gravelly voice sent a frisson of pleasure down her spine at the same time his sharp words and cold tone pricked her like a needle to the heart.

"Eliot let's just get you taken care of first okay?... Then we can talk about this stupid fight or whatever it is..."

The second it escaped her mouth, Parker knew she shouldn't have said that. Had it been a normal Eliot it might not have mattered as much but this Eliot was hurt and angry... angry at her.

"Stupid?... Oh so this is stupid now is it?"

The hitter was thoroughly incensed now. His blue eyes were sparking dangerously and even though he's had trouble keeping himself upright due to the concussion and broken bones, the anger seemed to straighten him up, bring things into focus. He took a couple of dangerous steps closer as he spoke, his voice oddly calm and low in contrast to his aggressive demeanor

"What next Parker?... huh? What next... Am I stupid too?... Is that why I keep bustin' my ass everyday trying to keep all of you safe?... tryin' to keep you safe?..."

He was almost in her face now and Parker was, for the first time feeling real fear. The kind that roots you to a spot, captures and paralyses you. She felt like a small animal in front of a hungry lion. She was going to be lunch and there was nothing she could do.

"Is that what you think Parker?... That I am too stupid to do anything else? Or that anyone else can do what I do?... Maybe I should stop doing it from now on... Maybe I'll get myself out when something bad happens in the next job and leave you to take care of things. Wouldn't you like that?"

There was no way she could've opened her mouth to say anything even if she'd wanted to but as it was there was nothing she could say. She'd overstepped the line by asking the hitter to 'get over it' that day, her panic at her emotions making her say the one thing she shouldn't have. She knew how much Eliot did for the team and also knew that rarely did he expect anything in return. The only thing he did expect from the rest of them was the respect that they gave each other and she'd taken it away from him that day. Now she had to suffer the consequences. So she closed her eyes and prepared herself for the storm she knew was coming.

Oddly, that seemed to spark his temper even more and she suddenly felt Eliot move away.

"You know what Parker... I am done. I am hurt, I am exhausted and I am just... tired of all this. I am tired of being treated like an automaton. So you can leave now and keep away. okay?"

She heard him walk to the door slowly, pull it open and stand next to it, waiting for her to leave. Swallowing hard, Parker tried to get the courage to say something.

"Eliot... I-"

"Leave Parker... I am tired of playing these games with you. If you want to be entertained, go play with Hardison and just leave me alone okay? I will continue working with the team... working with you. I am a professional and I am not about to let my feelings affect my job. But you have to promise me one thing... Stay out of my life. Is that clear?"

"El-"

"Go Parker... Please"

It was the 'please' that did it. She could see that he meant what he was saying and hanging her head, the thief stepped out of Eliot's house, turning once only to see the door click shut with a finality behind her. She'd played her part and now she had to live with the consequences of her actions.

She'd made a mistake in her panic and while it might not seem a big one at all, it was the one thing that could hurt and alienate the hitter. She'd succeeded in hurting the one person who'd looked beyond her crazy personality to see the real person beneath. She'd pushed away the one guy who could've given her the normality and safety she craved and she'd done it so well that he didn't even want to see her now.

Maybe one day they might be able to get over this, she might be able to explain her actions and they might even end up being closer friends or more, but today wasn't that day. It wasn't time yet to explain and maybe it wouldn't that day for quite some time.

But Parker was sure that one day, she would make sure Eliot knew of her feelings no matter what he felt or didn't feel. Until then, she just hoped that the small family that they'd created for themselves would remain intact.

She'd set out to protect herself from them and discovered that there was no need for that. Then she'd tried to protect them from her and had ended up hurting one of them in the process. She would make up for her mistakes in due time and in every way, but today, she had to live with her decisions no matter what they cost her.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is... I am gonna be posting the next chapter very soon, so stay tuned...**_

_**Please don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas... they are almost better than getting hugs from Eliot ;P**_

_**So keep reading and reviewing**_

_**Lotsa luv**_

_**Macybear**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N: Here's the next chapter in the angst-fest... hope you are still willing to read past the end of this chapter... (fingers, toes and everything else that can be crossed is crossed)**_

_**Hope you like where this is goin drjones... if someone asks me why the heck I am writing this sorta stuff, imma point to you... ;P jus kidding... **_

_**Seriously, I hope you like it... please review your thoughts :)**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 02<strong>

The week that was, almost saw the Leverage Associates team break up and scatter in five different directions. It was by sheer force of will and the influence of Nate's commanding personality that they were still together, working as a team and not killing each other in their sleep.

It had all started with the trouble between Eliot and Parker. The rest of the team had a glimmer of an idea what the problem had been about, but none of them knew of the exact extent of trouble they were getting closer and closer to. Ever since the day Eliot and Parker had argued because of some derogatory comment she'd made about him, nobody else knew what she had said, things had gone from uncomfortable, to chilly... then from cold to frosty to way beyond freezing... in the offices of the team.

Eliot made it a point to act as if the blonde thief wasn't even there and Parker, for her part, did everything she could to stay out of the hitter's way. The team had no idea why Eliot was taking this so seriously... I mean, everyone knew that Parker had absolutely no idea what she was saying most of the time, she had no sense of any social boundaries and wasn't particularly inclined to learn anytime soon.

Case in point, she'd stabbed a guy with a fork when she got nervous around him... That had to say something about her social skills. So what if she'd said something wrong about the hitter?... Couldn't he have just brushed it off as the deluded ramblings of a crazy blonde and gone on with his life? No one understood exactly what had gone down, but one thing was clear... things weren't gonna be the same around here anymore.

Nate was incredibly worried with the recent developments. Not only were the frosty attitudes bothering him, it was Eliot who was the focus of his worries. He'd tried reasoning it out with the hitter once they'd found out what the trouble was... or at least whatever portion of the problem they could discern, there had to be more than they knew because there was no way Eliot was getting this closed off over some stupid words.

Nate had tried talking to Eliot about it, only to be faced with a strong, silent and immovable brick wall. The hitter was completely closed off, acting in a way he hadn't, ever since Nate had found him in a half-dead condition after leaving an employer some six years ago, a person who he now knew to be Damien Moreau.

If Eliot was reacting like this, then whatever Parker had said or done must've been quite serious indeed. But even then, neither Nate nor Sophie or Hardison thought that anything that serious could've happened. Whatever it was, was making the whole team uncomfortable and putting them on edge... it was going to affect their jobs sooner or later.

Either they'd all underestimated how professional the hitter was, or he was getting over whatever problem he had with Parker because a couple of days later, he started acting normally around them... just wouldn't talk to or even look at Parker. He spoke to her only when necessary and even then, it was only to communicate the bare essential details of whatever had to be said. And Parker in turn, seemed meek, quiet and completely unlike herself. She was unprotesting-ly accepting whatever any of them said, as if she had almost no interest in whatever the team was doing. She was doing her job perfectly well, but it seemed as if her heart had just gone out of it.

This meek response however, only seemed to affect the already angry hitter even more. Hardison, who'd nursed a crush on the blonde thief since day one at the Pierson Aviation offices, was getting more and more incensed at the way the hitter was treating her over the past week. He'd tried to restrain himself over and over, telling himself that it was not his place to interfere between Eliot and Parker, but the day they'd had and a particularly sarcastic comment from the hitter just blew the roof off Hardison's patience.

"Okay... That's it."

Eliot, who'd been focused on Parker, was startled into turning around at the unnaturally loud tone of the hacker's voice. He seemed quite angry, an emotion that Eliot hadn't witnessed all that much in the young hacker. He might've been amused at the amount of anger that was rolling off of Hardison, had he not been worked up himself.

As it was, Parker's suddenly meek and compliant attitude had been getting to him almost as much as her previous apathy had. At least when she was devoid of emotion, he could pin point something in her that made him angry. Now, the way she just blearily moved from one job to another, without any involvement or any display of liveliness just pricked at him like an irritating thorn in his side.

He knew that it was because of his anger that day at his house that she was reacting like this. He knew that he'd hurt her that night and that this was her way of dealing with it. Still, it didn't save Eliot from feeling irritated at her or guilty about his behavior or even irritated at his feelings of guilt.

The excess of emotional distress left his normally under control feelings all over the place and that had resulted in all those sharp, acidic comments he'd leveled at the thief in the last couple of days. He knew that he was being incredibly childish and mean minded about this, but he couldn't help it. The iron control he'd exerted over his emotions for such a long time seemed to be beyond him now and Parker had unfortunately made herself the focus of his ire.

Now, as he faced the younger man, Eliot was still in the clutches of his previous bout of anger... His stance, the way he squared his shoulders and the way his blue eyes sparked with barely controlled anger communicated to Hardison that Eliot was one step away from doing some physical damage. But this was too important for the hacker to back down from. This was for Parker...

"Stop it Eliot... You've been goin' after Parker ever since y'all had your fight or whatever n' this is the limit man... this is the limit. I will not let you do this anymore. Don't you see man?... Don't you see that you're hurtin' her? And she doesn't even answer you back. That's enough Eliot. You gotta stop this right now. Or..."

This last word got the hitter's hackles up... his anger control, which had previously been on a precarious hair trigger, was shattered to smithereens as he went into full blown rage mode. Did this little mama's boy think he could take _**him**_ on?...

If you haven't seen Eliot Spencer in a rage, thank god for it. It is probably one of the scariest things you would see... probably one of the last things too. Hardison, who'd worked along side the hitter for the last couple of years, just now understood what made the man as feared as he was by hardened criminals who made their career out of torturing and killing other people.

Just the expression in his eyes betrayed the colossal force that was about to be unleashed. Everything else about this man was perfectly still... his body, primed for a fight, like a sleek jaguar crouching before unleashing its predatory strength on its unsuspecting prey.. his hands, loosely fisted, but a millisecond away from delivering a bone breaking punch and his feet set apart, but firmly on the ground, ready to spring his body into action or deliver a crippling blow.

But the eyes... Those warm blue eyes that had laughed more than the hitter's mouth ever had, were burning now, the blue almost incandescent with anger. Hardison had woken the sleeping beast... and he would have to deal with the consequences of it. Almost readying himself for what he knew would be an incredibly one sided fight, if it came down to it, Hardison steeled himself for a blow he was sure would break some bone in his body.

"Or what?..."

The words were growled out so low that the hacker almost had trouble hearing them

"Look man... I know I don't stand a chance in a fight with you. But if that is what it takes to make this situation go back to normal, I'll... I'll-I'll do it... I know you'll hurt me, even kill me the way you're looking right now, but if this is what it is going to take to make things go back to normal around here, I'll do it, I'll take that chance... You need somebody to take all your anger out on, take it out on me instead of Parker... Come on Eliot, you wanna fight me?... Let's go"

If Hardison had been expecting the hitter to launch at him with a well placed punch or a kick, he was fortunately disappointed. Eliot had taken one look at something beyond him and looked curiously deflated at the young man's words. Hardison could almost see the fight and all the anger drain out of the hitter as he stood before him. From a time bomb ticking towards explosion, Eliot changed over a matter of seconds to look like someone had yanked the carpet from under his feet.

The anger that had been clouding his eyes, making them spark flames of blue sputtered out as sure as if someone had thrown a bucket of water on it. What was left however, was a curiously sad, defeated expression in his eyes, making him look much older and sadder than ever before. And before the young hacker could open his mouth and say something, the hitter turned on his heel and walked out swiftly.

Only then was Hardison aware of the fact that the small blonde thief that had indirectly been the cause of this altercation between them, was standing in the doorway, having been a silent spectator to the whole thing. He had no idea what she was going through... no idea if she'd heard what he said to Eliot, but he could see that she was crying. Parker never cried... it just wasn't possible. Parker and crying didn't go together in his vocabulary and it never would. He would make sure of that.

Going to her, he pulled the slim blonde into his embrace and wrapped his arms comfortingly around her frame, letting her cry. She let him hold her that he was happy about but he couldn't understand why she kept hitting him with her small fist as she cried.

"Why?... Why?..why?" Parker was repeatedly whispering into the hacker's shirtfront as she cried pitifully

"Calm down honey... What are you saying?"

"Why did you do that?... Why did you have to fight with Eliot?" she almost demanded as soon as she could talk

"Look Parker... we've all been seeing how Eliot's been treating you for the last week okay?... It jus' ain't right. He shouldn't be able to treat you that way and you don't have to take it. I don't like the way he was hurting you so I jus... I jus stood up for you cuz you weren't gonna do it..."

"You shouldn't have... Look Hardison, I appreciate what you did just now. But this is between me and Eliot. I did something... wrong. I hurt Eliot... quite a lot. I understand that now... I didn't mean to do it but I did anyway... So whatever he does, just don't... don't pick a fight with him okay?... Please."

She was looking up into his face with a pleading expression in her soft grey eyes that were swimming with tears...

"Parker... you don't have to do this. Okay, you might've done something wrong... but that doesn't mean that it is okay for Eliot to treat you this way. It is just wrong baby... We're all part of a team, a family and no one gets to treat another one of us like that"

"Look Hardison, I know you don't understand what I am saying but just please... for my sake, just let this go. Don't pick a fight with Eliot over this... over me..."

The last few words were almost whispered as Parker slid out of the circle of his arms and started stepping back. Hardison couldn't help it... she was looking so vulnerable, so pathetic and in need of some emotional reassurance, he just felt the need to tell her that someone... that he cared, that he liked her just the way she was... inspite of anything she might've done.

So he just pulled her back a little bit and bending closer to her, lightly brushed his lips with hers in a tentative ghost of a kiss. He was waiting to see how she responded before he could confess his feelings about her.

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><p><em><strong>AN: (ducking under a table with hands over my head) Hold on to those brickbats, hatchets, guns or whatever else you have ready for me... I swear I am still an firm E/P shipper... I am just following where this muse is leading me. I promise that this will get better... and soon. Scout's honor...( does the scout's salute... incorrectly)**_

_**Would appreciate feedback from you guys... reviews help me understand exactly what you want to read next and I can try and get this going accordingly...**_

_**Thanks for sticking around to read this... :)**_

_**Keep reading and reviewing... **_

_**Lotsa luv and choco chip cookies**_

_**Macybear**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**A/N: Hi!... Here's the next chapter. It's a bit of a filler chapter with a whole lot of introspective Parker... but I had to put it in there before the story could move forward...**_

_**Hope all of you like this chapter too... Next chapter will be up soon. Don't forget to review your thoughts :)**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 03<strong>

Parker was stuck in an emotional quagmire. She'd just witnessed Hardison fight with Eliot over the way he seemed to be treating her over the last few days. Eliot had been quite harsh, but Parker knew that she deserved all of it and more for what she'd said to him... for what she'd put him through. All Eliot did was continue to ignore her, which hurt quite a bit... and sometimes he was sarcastic... which was more cathartic for him than hurting for her, because as a rule, Parker almost never made an effort to understand sarcasm.

She knew it was going to help him get all his anger out this way so she'd just let him go on. Not that the rest of the team understood. They just saw Eliot directing pointed comments at her and her letting him say whatever he wanted. So obviously, Hardison had picked a fight with the hitter. She'd been very worried for the hacker's health until she saw the fight and anger abruptly leach out of Eliot at the impact of Hardison's words.

She didn't know what he'd heard in them, but it was almost terrifying to see how broken and lost Eliot had looked when he left. Eliot was the strongest, most self assured person she knew and seeing him like that was not in the least bit comforting to the thief, especially knowing that she was in most ways responsible for his being that way... She'd wanted to follow him and try to smooth things over between them, but she'd had to deal with Hardison first.

The hacker had been quite righteously angry with Eliot and it had taken precious angry minutes for her to calm down enough for her to demand an explanation. It certainly hadn't helped that she'd been crying her eyes out and she wasn't even sure why. Without offering any explanations, she just pleaded with Hardison to let it go and not fight with Eliot over this... She thought she was getting through to the hacker when he'd bent down and... kissed her.

What the...?

Parker pulled back immediately and stiffening, she looked into the hacker's face incredulously.

"What did you just do?"

"P-Parker... "

"Why did you kiss me?"

"I-I... I jus' thought..."

"What?" her voice was taking on a slightly angry edge.

"Look Parker... I'm jus gonna come out n' say this okay?... I like you. I... like you... quite a lot as it turns out...So..."

"So... y-you kissed me?" there was a note of incredulity in it now.

"Y-Yeah... I figured..."

"No... no... no... It wasn't supposed to be like this. This wasn't supposed to happen... You shouldn't have done that"

Parker was very agitated, almost hyperventilating... this wasn't supposed to happen. _**Hardison**_ wasn't supposed to feel this way about her... not him. It was... It was Eliot... _**he**_ was supposed to like her, not Hardison. And yet, here they were... Eliot was furious with her and Hardison had just kissed her.

Shaking her head rapidly, still trying to work out how exactly she'd ended up in this situation, Parker backed up to the kitchen window at Nate's loft... she needed to get out of here.

"Sorry Hardison... I can't do this now... Please, don't hate me, but..." she gasped... still trying to get her breathing back under control

She seemed unable to get any more words out before she jumped out the window and was lost to view.

Staying inside would only make her feel boxed in and nervous... She had to get out, needed to feel the freedom she felt only when she jumped. The feeling of being free... of nothing else mattering... of just being herself.

Too late, she realized that the only other times she felt that safe and free had been in the company of a certain long haired hitter. He made her feel safe... as if nothing could hurt her when he was there to protect her. That he would be there for her whatever happened and he would come to get her no matter where she was...

Parker was sure that all those things still applied... if she was in trouble, Eliot would still move heaven and earth to make sure she was safe, because that was the kind of human being he was, but now he would only be doing his duty as their hitter... and not coming after her because he was her friend, because he cared.

Eliot Spencer had more integrity in his little finger than most people came across in their entire lives. He had rules that he didn't bend, break or subvert under any conditions... rules he lived his life by. And one of those rules since joining the team had been that he put each and every person on the team above himself when it came to matters of safety. And it was not only due to his job as the protector...

Of all the people in their lives, Parker had come to know more about Eliot in the past year or so than anyone else... maybe even Nate. Parker knew that Eliot cared... a whole lot more than he revealed and sometimes a whole lot more than he even wanted to. It was what made him the man he was, but it had also opened him up to a lot of hurt in his earlier days. So he'd learned to camouflage the caring under a veneer of toughness, but if you knew where to look, you could still see the trusting and caring man he'd been before.

It was obvious in the way he behaved around the team... if there was one person on the team who they all turned to , it was Eliot. Nate had a very close friendship with him, Sophie loved to talk to the hitter about things she couldn't talk about with almost anyone else, Hardison found a strict and teasing but caring older brother figure in him and Parker... Parker hadn't really realized what he meant to her till she'd stupidly pushed him away.

Parker hadn't realized that she'd pushed away the only man who could've completed her soul... completed her as a person, until she'd done enough damage to their relationship to last a dozen lifetimes. Needing to get away from everything for sometime, Parker blindly swung her way through the city using the multitude of zip lines she'd had installed expressly for this purpose.

Reaching blindly for the rope, she swung her way across the streets, ran across rooftops and ducked through fire escapes without any idea of where she was heading. It was like she was sleepwalking, but across the rooftops of the city... her body responding blindly to the environs while her brain still grappled with the reality of the situation she found herself in.

Eliot hated her... that much she was sure of now. He had to. She'd broken him... like she broke everything else she touched. The expression on the hitter's face when he spotted her standing behind Hardison a few minutes ago was still etched in her mind... she couldn't get his face out of her mind's eye even if she wanted to. One second he'd been angrier at Hardison than ever before and the next, he'd seen her and literally deflated in front of her eyes.

The hitter who'd left Nate's house was very different from the man whom she'd come to know in the last year or so. The Eliot she'd known had been strong, self-confident to the point of cockiness, a completely self-reliant person who had no time of day for what anybody else thought. But this man she'd seen five minutes ago was a mere shadow of that... and she'd been one of the reasons he'd become like that. Of course he was a grown man, responsible for his own actions... but there was no denying that she was the one that had made him start losing the iron control he held on his emotions.

If there was one rule Eliot had never broken till now, it was to never bring any emotions into a job. Even in the job involving his ex Aimee and her horses, he'd somehow managed to keep his personal life separate from his professional one. But this... this situation was different. This involved Parker, who was part of his day to day professional life as well as making her presence felt in his personal one.

If she hadn't panicked and reacted the way she did that day, who knew, the two of them might've had it all worked out by now. She could've had whatever she'd always wanted, craved and never had in her life... a real home, someone to share her life, her successes and failures with... someone she could be herself around without the feeling of being judged for it and found lacking. Someone who understood her and cared for her despite all her craziness. A man who gave the freedom of being her own person while also giving her the security and feeling of safety she'd lacked all her life.

And all this, she could've had with Eliot... he really was the perfect man for her. And she'd stupidly thrown it all away due to a momentary feeling of panic and some misguided sense of losing her freedom.

Parker hadn't paid any attention to what she'd been doing for the last ten minutes or so and was surprised to find her vision blurred... she couldn't even see where she was going, it seemed as if her body was purely running on instinct and adrenaline. Curiously, she swiped her free hand at her face to find it come up completely wet. She'd been crying silent tears for quite sometime thinking about Eliot and hadn't even realized it.

Okay... that was it. Since when did she become such a pitiful, spineless creature? This wasn't who she was... She was Parker. She was the best thief in the world and there was no way she was letting one stupid guy and his stubbornness stand between her and happiness. She would pound it into his head if she had to, but she would make Eliot see that she was sorry for her mistake. After that she had no idea what to say or do... but Parker hoped that it would come to her when the situation came. She would somehow just have to convince him that they were perfect for each other and hope that he felt the same way... which, looking at his current reaction to her, seemed a very bleak possibility.

That decided, there was also the tricky situation with Hardison. He'd kissed her... _**kissed**_ her and told her that he liked her. Oh shiny tomato! What was she to do?... She hadn't even told him anything... just jumped out of the window and fled the scene as quickly as possible. Parker knew she would have to go back and fix this... but not just now.

Parker had, while swinging her way across the city, without even noticing it, come to her favorite place. It was the rooftop of the Hansen Building, the tallest building in the city. Being up there made Parker feel like she was sitting in the clouds and it had the best view of the sunset anywhere in the city. Taking her habitual place on a ledge, her feet hanging off to the side, Parker settled in to think things over.

The position high up over the rest of the city helped her to think... she liked to come here often, mostly at night, to work things out. She hadn't been able to come here much in the last few months due to the team taking up a lot of jobs one after the other, but this was where Parker did some of her best thinking. Sitting up there, the breathtaking view of the sprawling city in front of her, the sun sinking low in the sky somewhere along to her side, Parker decided that today was the day things would change.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is... Hope all of you liked it. I know the fic is moving a little too slow for some people's tastes, but I swear I am working my way towards something here... **_

_**So please review your comments and thoughts about this and other chapters... I appreciate all your feedback :)**_

_**Lotsa luv**_

_**Macybear**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**AN: Hi there guys... First off, so sorry for not updating in so many days. Wont happen from now on. As it is, here is the next chapter in the angst fest and this one is all Eliot... so enjoy...**_

_**Dont forget to review your thoughts and ideas. :)**_

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><p><em><em>**Chapter 04**

It had been exactly one week... seven days since he'd seen the little blonde thief that dominated his dreams. Oh yeah... apparently his brain wasn't in on the fact that he and Parker weren't exactly best friends now. The dreams about her, that had started some time after he'd seen her in that hot pink number during the Faberge Egg job, were still as dominant a part of his nights as they'd been before Eliot and Parker had their little... or not so little disagreement.

Not that he'd been purposely obvious about it, but somehow Nate seemed to pick up on the fact that something wasn't right with his team and decided to send them all away for a compulsory one week break. They were supposed to do anything they wanted as long as it was away from Boston and the rest of the team for a whole week and return only the next Monday so that they could all get back to work.

Only, they returned on Monday... Parker didn't. She didn't come on Tuesday either. Hardison was going crazy over the fact that she might be hurt or already dead and they wouldn't know because the crazy thief had picked out all the trackers he'd hidden in her shoes. Eliot himself was quite worried by Wednesday morning, figuring that if she had taken a separate job over the week and gotten delayed, she should've been back by then. She'd been completely off the grid for the last nine days and everyone knew that if Parker wanted it, no one, even Hardison couldn't track her whereabouts.

So it was a great relief when Nate found the blonde curled up on his couch Thursday morning. In their happiness at her return, the rest of them failed to notice just how gaunt and tired she looked... but Eliot did. He always noticed how his team mates moved, behaved and looked so that he could have a frame of reference to work with when either of them was sick or injured.

Whatever it was, she didn't seem to be hurt... her movements told him that she wasn't injured. So it seemed that she just wasn't taking care of herself... eating or sleeping properly. Eliot tried very hard not to let it bother him. But his protective instincts were ingrained far too deeply in him for him to turn a blind eye to her condition. The same protective instincts that had made him yell at her and kick her out of his home that night, kicked into high gear when he saw her thin, gaunt face peering at him from behind the veil of dull blonde hair. Something was wrong and he had a bad feeling he'd been the cause of it.

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><p>Parker had taken a decision exactly ten days ago. She'd decided she wouldn't let this whole misunderstanding cloud her judgement or rule her life and she'd started acting on it from the next day on. First, she had to figure out a way to apologize to Eliot... and then get him to listen to her.<p>

No... actually, first priority was to get Hardison to understand that while she liked his company, she had no romantic feelings for him. The trick with it was to do it gently and in a way that didn't hurt the hacker and let him keep his dignity. These were some things that Parker had never known nor understood before coming under the tutelage of Eliot, Nate and Sophie. But yeah... after she'd made it clear to Hardison that she didn't like him in that way, she had to figure out how exactly to tell the hitter about the feelings she'd discovered for him.

Well... okay. Planning was something she was good at. Parker had been planning heists since she had been 15. She planned and helped in performing a lot of Archie's later jobs and that training had proved invaluable to establishing her career. So now, she got down to planning her strategies down to the last detail. It had taken ten whole days, but in the end she had it, the perfect plan. All that was left to do was to put it in action and pray that Eliot Spencer was in a forgiving mood.

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><p>Eliot had taken to carefully noting Parker's movements ever since she'd came back after the enforced vacation that Nate had given them. While she looked tired and washed out, she wasn't hurt and he was pretty sure the thief hadn't been doing any other job on the side. If she had, everyone, the police, the media and Parker herself were all being incredibly quiet about it. It was common knowledge that if Parker hit some museum or private art collection, it was a seemingly impossible robbery while always... always made huge 72 pt headlines.<p>

So he was quite sure that she hadn't been gone on a job, and it didn't seem like Parker had really taken a vacation... It was natural that the hitter became curious. Hence the pseudo stalking. There was something different about her. Something new that hadn't been there when he'd seen her for the last time.

Memories of that day flooded Eliot's mind. the relationship between him and Hardison had been strained since then. The usually talkative hacker had barely exchanged ten words with the hitter in the last week or so and he had also been quite morose in general. Eliot figured he was worried about Parker's safety...

Obviously, Hardison's feelings for Parker went above and beyond what you would expect one of them to feel for a team mate... kinda like what Eliot also felt for their thief. He hadn't counted on getting involved in some twisted emotional triangle and there was no way it was going to end happily for any of them involved. It didn't really make sense to him for Parker and Hardison to be together... both of them were too immature to form a long term bond and too involved in their own lives to be able to make room for someone else in theirs. But it wasn't his place to comment on anyone's choice of a partner when he himself couldn't reconcile himself with his own choice.

It seemed as if his never mixing business with pleasure rule had already been shot to smithereens if he was actually thinking about getting involved with Parker, their resident bundle of crazy. Eliot had been seriously thankful for Nate and Sophie deciding to not interfere with whatever he and Parker had going on the previous couple of weeks. He knew that they'd really wanted to step in and smooth things over...

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><p>Sophie had always been sorely tempted to play matchmaker with two of the three younger people in the team and Eliot was pretty sure that she hadn't been looking at Hardison as a possibility for Parker. But she'd graciously not intervened when Hardison had made it clear to everyone except the thief herself that he was very interested in her. In a way, Sophie had known that Eliot wouldn't say anything after that, even if he did have feelings for Parker.<p>

Sophie knew Eliot better than everyone else thought she did. Eliot respected the grifter for her talent as well as her acumen when it came to reading people. She'd worked him out right from the first time she'd been introduced to him. Over the period of time they'd worked together, Sophie was the only one Eliot had been able to really talk to. Nate had his own problems that liked to plague him one after the other... he had Sam, Maggie, their clients, their marks and their cons always running through his head to really be able to listen to any of them or their personal problems. Plus, he never knew what to do so he always let things play out the way they did and waited almost till it was all out of control before stepping in and demanding a gargantuan level of work from himself and his team to set things right.

Hardison was good company only when it came to sports, playing video games and pickin up chicks at a bar... even then, he'd needed Eliot to coach him through the process. Parker couldn't be approached because most of the times, she was the problem. So sometimes, Eliot and Sophie had ended up talking at each other... her going on about Nate and his obliviousness and him talkin about his own little problems... like how Parker drove him crazy, how Hardison was gonna get himself killed if he tried to hug him again, how Molly, his step sister and her kids kept calling him wanting him to come over for Thanksgiving but he felt too awkward being around her and Brian's whole family when his only connection to them, through Molly's mom had already gone away when she'd passed.

Even if their problems didn't get solved, just ranting at someone about them gave the two of them the momentary peace and space they needed to just let the agitated emotions out of their system... it had kinda become their thing. But if there was one thing that Eliot had been careful never to share in those sessions, it was about his feelings for Parker.

As a consequence, even Sophie had been in the dark about Parker and his fight and their subsequent arguments or his fight with Hardison the other day. Over the last few months though, their little chat sessions had gone down in frequency... maybe because Nate the nuthead had finally stared to open up to their grifter and all was well in Sophie's world.

But now as his problems with two of his team mates came to light, Sophie had been hinting quite a bit that she wanted to have a chat with him. He still wasn't sure whether it was for the sake of getting the inside info on the problem or because she was insanely curious about the happenings and wanted to poke her nose in and maybe try to wave her magic wand to smooth things over. With Sophie, there was never a third option. She was always curious and nosy and loved to be kept in the loop of everything that happened around her. Playing the fairy godmother was her dream role and he was sure that she was definitely not going to lose this opportunity to make her dream come true.

Thinking about that brought Eliot back to the current situation. Ever since Parker had come back, she'd been different. He didn't know what, but she was somehow changed in some way and it was getting on his nerves. Eliot knew that he shouldn't be so emotionally involved with the thief... after all, he'd been the one who kicked her out of his life a couple of weeks ago. It was incredibly stupid to be obsessing about Parker now and there was no way she was ever going to like him back... not when she had a simple, untangled, uncomplicated and inherently happy person like Hardison wanting her in his life.

As it was, he couldn't let this situation remain as it was. He couldn't put Sophie off for too long... even Nate would get involved if the situation persisted any longer and Eliot was hundred percent sure that was the last thing he needed right now. Now, he had to figure out a way to get his relationship with Hardison back on track. His non-relationship with Parker was also a big concern, but there was hardly anything he could do there was there? The hitter simply couldn't figure what he could do or say to make things simpler between him and the blonde.

Right now, he didn't need perfection... a return to boring normalcy could do just fine. He needed some sort of order in his life... he'd been used to existing by himself most of the time since he'd been about fourteen, but now that the team had become such a major part of him and his life, Eliot needed some semblance of normalcy in his relationships with them if he was to continue as he was before.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is... Another chapter all done. I wasnt very happy with it cuz it does nothing to move the story fwd... but i guess i just needed to get Eliots feelings out of the way before I could work something out between the three of them. <strong>_

_**So what did you think of it? Please review your thoughts and ideas... I live for them and they really help me write the following chapters. Any and every sort of feedback is highly appreciated.**_

_**Thank you for sticking with me and my stories... :)**_

_**Lotsa luv and Ginger snaps**_

_**Macybear**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**A/N: Hi there... Here's the next update for this fic. It's slowly but surely moving forward... Basically because I am still figuring out parts of it. Hopefully my picky muse will co-operate soon and we'll have progress. :(**_

_**Hope you guys like this update... Plz send in your reviews and thoughts. They are invaluable when I am trying to write something but am stuck due to lack of inspiration... :)**_

_**And sorry for the short chapter, but I felt this was the right place to stop. The next chapter is already in the works and should be up very soon.**_

_**Thanks to all the people who read, favorite-d, put alerts and reviewed on the story. Thanks also to my friends Mercedes and Katie for their unflagging support and frequent pep-talks that keep me writing. Love you guys... :)**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 05<strong>

'Okay Parker... you can do this. You're the world's best thief. This is gonna be a piece of cake'

Parker drew a deep breath and let it out slowly like Eliot had taught her when she'd learned a little bit of Tai-Chi from the hitter when he'd been coaching her in self defense. Those days when she'd whined about having to train everyday with Eliot seemed like they were ages ago as the thief silently moved across the corridor from her office to a room she was well familiar with.

She'd avoided spending any time alone with either Hardison or Eliot since she'd gotten back the previous day. Once she decided that she needed a plan, Parker had been able to come up with the perfect one in under half an hour, silently thanking Archie for having drilled the importance of having a foolproof plan for every little job she pulled into her head at the tender age of 14. But obtaining the materials required and setting up for it had taken almost ten days. Now that she was all set to put her plan into action, she needed to get one thing out of the way first. And step one was telling Hardison that while she liked him a lot, it was only as a friend and that she didn't have any of _those_ feelings for him.

To her knowledge, Hardison had been cooped up inside his room playing some video game the whole of the previous day and might still be in there... The hacker often had 48 hour video game marathons that usually left him on an adrenalin and sugar high for a couple of hours after, till he collapsed into an exhausted slumber in the aftermath. Parker knew that this time before his succumbing to sleep would be her best chance to have this uncomfortable conversation with the hacker. Nate and Sophie had gone out for breakfast and to meet a client and Eliot had checked in with the mastermind and taken off for god only knew where in an attempt to stay away from her and maybe even Hardison.

That was another thing that needed to be taken care of. Hardison and Eliot had fought because of her and she needed them to become friends again... she needed her family to stay intact. Hardison was as important a part of her family as Eliot was, and the thief needed both of them. Just in different ways. Hardison was the closest thing she'd ever had to a friend. She'd found out what a friend was only when she'd become Alice White during her jury duty job... Penny had become Alice's... no, her friend and that was when Parker knew what it felt like to have a friend. Never having even worked with anyone else before, Parker had always sailed through life alone, with just her mentor being a part of some years of her life.

Now that she knew what it felt like to have a friend, she knew that she had really great friends in Sophie and Hardison. Though Sophie was a great person to talk to and just hang out with, with her obsession for fashion and perfection, Sophie often behaved like an indulgent but firm mother, rather than a friend. On the other hand, hanging out with Hardison was all about relaxing, having fun and occasionally breaking some rules. It was like a prescription of what Parker needed when she was bored. So she'd started spending a lot more time around the hacker than anyone else on the team.

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><p>She'd not been exactly aware of Hardison's feelings towards her in the beginning but slowly, even she, with her not-so-brilliant social skills cottoned on to the fact that the hacker had more than just feelings of friendship or filial affection towards her. The thief knew that she had to set the record straight about her own feelings but found that she couldn't. Every time she tried, Parker's throat would just close up and she'd have to change the subject every time. For the first time in her life, Parker chickened out of something.<p>

She knew that if she told Hardison that she didn't like him that way, the relationship between them would change in ways that couldn't be controlled. Hardison was her best and in fact, only friend and Parker selfishly wanted to keep their relationship just the way it was. If it had been under her control, she'd have continued their relationship just the way they were, keeping them inside the bubble she'd created... making it so that she would never have to answer his question from the other day.

Parker had no desire to hurt or discomfit the hacker... she just wanted her best friend back but even she knew that this was going to be pretty much impossible considering the situation she'd gotten herself into. After spending so many years alone, with just random one-night stands and hook ups for company, she'd had to go and get involved emotionally with two of the three most important men in her life.

She'd fallen first in lust and then in love with the enigmatic hitter and the uncomplicated and straight forward hacker had fallen for her. Just thinking about her situation gave her a throbbing headache and Parker wanted to get atleast one aspect of it sorted out before she went completely crazy.

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><p>Entering the hacker's office, Parker was disappointed to see that the room was unoccupied. Furthermore, it seemed as if Hardison hadn't come to the offices yet from what she could see on the various computer screens. Only two screens that always ran heuristic data crawls on the web were up and running and most importantly, Hardison's gaming system, which took the place of pride in his office, was on sleep mode. Jiggling the mouse a bit revealed to the thief that Hardison had last played sometime last night and must've left in quite a bit of haste if he forgot to shut down his system.<p>

Parker had recently discovered that she wasn't all that patient when it came to things she didn't like or wasn't comfortable with. Now that she'd gotten the courage to talk to the hacker, she wanted to get their conversation over with as soon as possible and was getting irritated at not finding him in his office. Without too much thought as to the timing of her actions, Parker pulled out her cellphone and pressed speed dial 3.

Of course, Sophie and Eliot were on her speed dial before the hacker. Obviously, they were the people Parker called the most when it came to sticky situations. Since she was in more sticky situations involving social blunders and people, Sophie came first. Eliot's number was called far less frequently, used only when she was in a tight situation she couldn't get herself out of.

As the phone rang on the other end, Parker was idly wondering as to where the hacker could be... his house was the nearest to the offices, apart from Nate's loft, which happened to be _at_ the offices, so the hacker was usually one of the first people in. Today however, it was quite late in the morning and he still hadn't showed up. Agreed that it was a Sunday, and most people didn't show up at work today... but their team had never functioned in the way a normal office did and Parker had genuinely expected the hacker to be present and accounted for at the offices when she dropped in through her usual entrance at the kitchen window some fifteen minutes earlier.

Whatever was running around in Parker's mind, was however brought to a grinding halt when Hardison's phone was picked up on the other end. The voice that answered the phone however, didn't belong to the hacker... simply because it was female.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is. Another chapter done...**_

_**Please write in your reviews and thoughts on this and other chapters... and even maybe what you would like to see in the forthcoming ones. Feedback of any and every kind is always greatly appreciated. **_

_**Lotsa luv and Brandy snaps (yum)**_

_**Macybear**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**A/N:Hello there again :) Seems like my muse is in a slightly cooperative mood this week... so here's the next chapter. Even though this one still doesn't do much for the plot on the whole, I felt that it cleared up a lot of things about our favorite thief. So without further ado...**_

_**Oh and don't forget to review or comment on this chapter and all others. Feedback is craved and will be rewarded ;P**_

_**Thank you to all who reviewed on the previous chapters... hope this one is review worthy too :)**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 06<strong>

"Hello?" came a slightly husky, sleep laced but decidedly female voice from the other end.

Parker was beyond confused now. She was sure she'd called Hardison's phone... she'd used her speed dial like she always did, and it had never gone wrong before. Without even thinking for a second, the thief disconnected the call and tried again. This time she made sure she called Alec Hardison's phone... she even peered at the small letters on the screen to make sure... there it was - it said Connecting to Alec Hardison and the little phone icon blinked next to it, signifying that the phone was ringing on the other end.

Hurriedly putting her phone back to her ear, Parker heard the a second of silence as whoever picked up the phone took a second to put to to their ear and speak. And there it was again...

"Hello?"

The confounding female voice. As Parker stood staring at her phone as if there was something wrong with it, she could clearly hear the person on the other end of it start to get irritated. After a couple of repeated 'hello's and not receiving anything in return but silence, the voice was getting worked up.

"Who is this?"

That got her going. Who was this voice asking her who she was?

"Who're you?"

You'd think whoever was on the other side of the phone would be relieved to finally hear someone speak, but if at all possible, the voice seemed even more irritated now.

"You're the one who called... you tell me."

"Well I called someone else... So I don't have to tell you anything"

'_That ought to shut you up you stupid sleepy phone voice_' thought Parker as she waited for a reply... that didn't seem to be forthcoming. A long couple of seconds later, the voice came back on, sounding a lot more awake and a lot less angry.

"Ok... whoever you are, sorry. I didn't mean to shout at you. Just picked up the wrong phone. Both of us have black I-phones that look kinda similar and I just answered the phone thinking it was mine. You're... just a sec... Parker calling for Alec?"

Who was this woman who was answering Hardison's phone?... and exactly how did she know her name and why the hell was she calling Hardison 'Alec', like she'd known him for ages?

Parker took a couple of seconds to respond but when she did, all she could stammer out was

"Y-Yes... and who're you?"

"Oh... I'm Shayla. Shayla Forrester. I'm Alec's... well, I'm his friend. I think he's still asleep. Do you want me to wake him up?"

Again, Parker was so confused that she couldn't think of a proper answer. As she dithered, she could almost see the woman on the other side also get a little uncomfortable. Finally, she decided that whatever was happening, would definitely be better figured out in person.

"N-No... it's fine. I just had to talk to him about... work. Yeah that's it... I had to talk to him about the office."

"Oh?... You work with Alec?"

There was a definite amount of guarded curiosity in Shayla's voice now and Parker had no idea what to say. She was still trying to wrap her head around the fact that a strange woman had picked up Hardison's phone at a half past seven in the morning and now she didn't even know what story the hacker had given the woman or even whether he had given her one.

"Y... Yeah... You could say that. You know what?... I have to go now... I'll talk to him later."

"Wait... Just.. Can I ask you something?"

Almost growling under her breath at almost escaping this horrible situation, Parker forcibly brought back her mild, happy voice that Sophie had taught her to use during grifts.

"Yeah... What is it Shayla?"

Parker was proud of herself that she'd remembered the woman's name... Sophie had told her that people liked it when others remembered and called them by their name during conversations and thought that if Sophie knew she would be proud too as she gripped the phone to her ear in a white knuckled death grip but kept her voice pleasant and inconsequential.

Shayla on the other hand, started sounding a little hesitant and unsure, maybe even a little embarrassed.

"Ummm... It's.. It's nothing... just that, how long have you known Alec?"

"Why do you want to know that?"

"Well... I've met him quite a number of times at the Horde Club and we met there yesterday too... I just wanted to ask you if he has a girlfriend."

The last sentence was uttered almost as if she didn't want to but the words were forcing themselves off her lips. Parker stiffened for a second... she knew from previous conversations that the Horde Club was a place where Hardison went to catch up with his gaming buddies. So that meant that whoever this woman was, was also probably into video games, the one part of Hardison's life that Parker had never become interested in.

"Why do you want to know?... I don't think you should be asking me that"

"Why does it concern you so much?... are _**you**_ his girlfriend?"

The voice had just the right mix of incredulity, disbelief and surprise to make Parker take a step back. Something prickled inside Parker as she tried to shut out the discomfort of having to defend her position in her friend's life against a woman she didn't even know. And what was with that tone of her voice?... Could she not be Hardison's girlfriend if she wanted to?

All of a sudden, all of Parker's insecurities came to the fore and she couldn't help but remember every single occasion when she proved herself to be... different, and that was just putting it lightly. Flashes of her life ran in front of her eyes as she saw one person after another leave her because she was just too damaged, too broken to ever be normal. She could recall every single time Eliot had said that 'there was something wrong with her' She knew that most of the times in the recent past, the hitter had meant it as an almost compliment or as close to an endearment as you could from him. But all that didn't matter now.

"Why can't I be his girlfriend?"

There was a certain amount of righteous indignation in Parker's tone as she voiced that question. Parker knew that she didn't have romantic feelings for the hacker but she could hardly give up without a fight when this woman over the phone was being so condescending about her.

"Well, first off, you don't even call him by his name... you call him Hardison. What kind of a girlfriend would call him by his last name instead of his given one? Also, if he did have a girlfriend, he shouldn't have come to the club yesterday night looking for some company."

Okay... that stopped her cold. Hardison had told her that he liked her, he'd kissed her and... ten days later he was going to a club to pick up chicks? Granted that she hadn't really been forthcoming with an answer and she'd pretty much avoided him for the better part of two days after she'd returned without any explanations.

But Hardison was supposed to know her, understand her... he was supposed to be her friend. He couldn't expect her to just jump into his arms when he held them open for her. Even if she hadn't had feelings like that for him, he should've known that she would need time to make such a huge decision as to trust someone with her heart. Parker knew that she was being totally unfair to him, but she could help the tiny niggle of hurt and the slight feeling of betrayal that crept into her heart.

Taking Parker's silence to mean that she'd won that particular argument, Shayla decided to press her advantage home.

"Look Parker... I am sure you're a nice person. But I really like Alec... I know we just met yesterday, but we really seemed to click and there was something there that I haven't felt with anyone for a long time. If you're not totally serious about him, I would suggest you step back..."

"Look... Shayla. Hardison is my friend... my best friend and I just... I - I just don't-"

"Oh ok... So you don't like him _that_ way right?"

Looked like the woman wasn't focusing on anything other than getting her own doubts cleared. In her haste to get herself straightened out, Shayla didn't really place the hesitance and doubt in Parker's voice or if she did, she conveniently chose to ignore it.

There was a long pause on the phone however as Parker knew that once she answered this question, she would officially be acknowledging the decision she'd taken ten days ago. Till now, only one person knew of it, herself. And if she chose to back out of it or change it to suit herself later, she wouldn't have felt anything other than a teeny bit of guilt. but now, she'd have to tell this woman, whoever she was, that yes, she didn't have any sort of romantic feelings for Hardison. He was just her friend... her best friend and nothing more.

But something was stopping her. She knew that Shayla was on the other end of the connection, still waiting for her answer, waiting for her to confirm that she was only Hardison's friend. If Parker said that, she would lose her best friend. She knew it... she didn't know how, but she knew it. If Hardison started seeing this woman, Parker would lose her best friend. There would be no more movie nights with truly massive amounts of junk food, no more sci-fi marathons and definitely no more dropping in on him whenever she felt like it.

Things were changing too fast and Parker didn't know if she wanted them to change at such a pace. Her brain kept telling her that she was being unfair. She didn't like Hardison like that, she liked Eliot... but the hitter was angry with her and Parker had no one else to turn to. She didn't want to lose her best friend to someone else...

As all these thoughts whirled around the thief's mind, she could almost picture the other woman convinced now that Parker did indeed have romantic feelings for Hardison. She was tempted to let the woman believe what she wanted to and stay quiet, and she might have had she been the person she'd been when she'd first joined the team. That Parker would've had no problems letting someone assume something that wasn't necessarily the truth if it gave her the advantage. But the person she was now, and it was all due to Sophie, Nate and most of all Eliot, wouldn't let her do that.

She could feel that Shayla really seemed to like the lanky hacker and wanted to have a go at having a relationship with him. And if Hardison also liked her, as he seemed to have the previous night, enough to spend the night with her, who was she to step in between them? And that too, just because she wanted a little more time to get used to the fact that things were changing quite rapidly and going out of her control.

She would deal with her rapidly spinning out of control life when she could, but right now, Parker needed to convey to Shayla that she had no such feelings for Hardison and also make sure the woman knew she and Eliot could track her down and break her if she ever made the hacker sad. So she took a deep breath and launched into what could only be Parker's version of a permission. It wasn't fair to blame Shayla if she felt extremely threatened by the faceless woman named Parker... enough that she actually had to re-think the idea of pursuing a relationship with the adorable man she'd spent last night with.

"Look Shayla... I don't like Hardison that way... but just because I said that doesn't mean that I don't like him in other ways. He is my best friend in the whole world and I am telling you right now, that is not going to change... ever. And if you try to ever... ever hurt him, Eliot and I will track you down even if you are in the south pole and make you wish you'd never been born. Did you get that?"

Shayla could barely get out a stuttered affirmative... she was scared of the crazy woman who claimed to be Alec's best friend and somehow, she was even more afraid of this man she'd mentioned... Eliot. It didn't make sense to be so afraid of a man whose name had come up only once in the whole crazy, out of control, twilight zone kinda conversation but somehow she was. And she refused to delve into this weird feeling any further and hurried to assure the mad woman that she wouldn't wanna hurt Alec consciously.

She was still rambling on about it, now in a bit of a panic when she abruptly heard the line click and the connection get cut. Heaving a deep breath and letting it whoosh out, Shayla was trying to get her emotions under control again after that nerve wracking conversation when she heard the sheets rustle and the duvet covered lump on the bed move.

Her rapidly calming breath hitched up again as she remembered that the woman on the other side of the phone call had been a friend of Alec's. Oh yeah, this man was going to have a lot to answer for... just for what he'd made her put up with this morning. And what was the deal with the creepy friends huh? But Shayla knew that she was an utter and complete sucked when it came to Alec Hardison. The man only had to give her the puppy eyes and she was ready to melt. God she was so whipped!

Two blocks down, Parker had just snapped her phone shut. Satisfied that she'd appropriately instilled the fear of retribution in Shayla's head, Parker resolved to put her confusion about Hardison out of her mind and concentrate on getting the hitter's attention enough to atleast apologize to him. She'd still not decided whether she was gonna talk to him about her newly, or not so newly discovered feelings for him. But she did know that she needed to talk to him about what she'd said and maybe get him to apologize to her in return because come on, even he'd been a stubborn pig-headed idiot back then.

But just thinking about him and his legendary pigheadedness, brought to mind that Eliot was so stubborn and such an idiot when it same to his principles, that even if he'd had any feelings for her at some point of time during their acquaintance, he'd have explained it away or just thrown it out of his brain. But the one thing that remained the same throughout the years had been the fact that even if Eliot got irritated or angry at it, he'd never been able to remain completely calm about anything around her.

Parker was counting on her making him uncomfortable enough to get him to admit to not being completely unaffected by her. But she was still not quite sure about how to go from there. But then, if she was the best when it came to planning things, she was also quite amazing when she had to just wing it. She'd get there... who knew, maybe the twists and turns along the way would only serve to make the journey that much more interesting.

With that happier thought in mind, the blonde thief bounced up from the seat and heading for the kitchen window, glanced at the sky on the way... it was going to be a beautiful day and maybe by the end of it, she'd have all the answers to all her questions.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is... another chapter done. I have to confess that i was a little confused by it myself, so I don't blame you guys if you just want to pull your hair out by the end of it. What can I say... My Parker is a confused little thing but in my defense, I did leave her feeling better and a lot clearer about what she wanted.**_

_**So what did you think of it? **_

_**Plz send in your reviews and comments... all of them are greatly appreciated and serve as my motivation to write more and to write better :)**_

_**Thank you to all for sticking with this story and loving my characters like you did. :)**_

_**Lotsa luv and coconut macaroons**_

_**Macybear**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**A/N:Hi there... next chapter's here.**_

_**I wanted to do this in Eliot's POV but my Parker-muse kept stealing this chapter for herself... maybe next chapter I'll try channeling Eliot... :)**_

_**Thanks to all the people who reviewed and supported this fic. I hope you like this chapter too... Don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas... :)**_

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><p><em><em>**Chapter 7**

Well of course things had to go all whoop-ass on her just when she'd decided that she would get through to her Eliot, even if she had to kidnap him to get it done... this was the way their life was. Someone up there in a white gown, wings and a halo was totally against them and probably having a bit of a laugh at their expense. Now Eliot was even more angry at her, if his silence was anything to go by. Parker knew that he was fine when he growled... but when he went all silent ninja on her, she knew that she was in trouble.

Parker had been quite happy, almost humming as she clipped onto her zip line that took her out of Nate's loft... her plan for Eliot was almost in place and all she needed was to figure out a way to just get him there. Afterwards, he'd be stuck in there with her and would simply _have_ to listen to her till she let him out. How she'd deal with his anger at being stuck with her she hadn't still figured out but she was sure he wouldn't do any damage... at least not much she corrected herself with a slight wince.

She'd just been a block away from her warehouse when her buoyant mood and her happy plans were interrupted by the ringing coming from her hip. The blasted phone had to ring just then. Without even a glimmer of an idea of what this phone call would precipitate, the thief had cheerfully answered the phone to find that Nate had a job for them and was calling to ask them to meet up at the office as soon as possible.

Sighing, Parker looped her zip chord around her hand and swung herself just a little bit out of her straight line descent, enabling her to create an arc that had her within a hand's length of the other zipline she'd had installed that would enable her to get back to Nate's. Had she only known what she was getting herself into, she might've just kept going and slept the day away on her twin bed with Bunny.

Just as she was clambering into Nate's loft via his kitchen window, she caught sight of Eliot in the room making himself coffee. While the hitter didn't do anything to explicitly ignore her, she could almost feel the wall that came up between them every time she even looked in his direction. Just being in the same room with him was beginning to become a pleasure and a torture at the same time.

Right then she decided that as soon as this job was done or maybe even after the whole thing was done... she just had to wait for Eliot and her parts of the con to get over and then she was honest to god kidnapping the stupid, stubborn man and somehow drilling into his head the fact that she was sorry like she'd never been before and that she'd gone and put her foot in her mouth because she was afraid of her feelings for him then. Maybe then, if it got through that thick head of his, they could start working on that something that was always there between them.

Parker, for all her recent revelations on human emotions and behavior, was still quite in the dark about exactly what her feelings for the hitter entailed. She knew she felt things for him that were completely different from what she felt for Hardison, Nate or any other man she'd ever been in contact with. Parker knew she liked Eliot... a lot, and she could easily see herself getting in bed with him. But beyond that she had absolutely no idea how to proceed... she knew she wanted Eliot to be around for more than just sex, but no idea on just what it was she wanted to happen between them.

And it was for just that reason she needed to talk to him and she needed him to listen to her... soon. Eliot was probably the only person other than Sophie who Parker felt comfortable talking to about things that weren't related to the job. She didn't know when or how it had happened, but Parker was about as comfortable talking things out with him as she was around him when they were pulling a job together. Eliot was a good listener, didn't interrupt unless he had an important question, let her just talk it all out by herself, knowing that she would ultimately arrive at the answer to her own question without his help at all.

She could talk things out with Hardison the same way if she wanted, and she'd even tried it as his insistence once, but the minute she started, Hardison had jumped in with a ton of questions saying that he needed to understand the situation if he needed to help her. Then, after she'd spent another fifteen minutes answering all his mostly pointless queries, she'd gotten an opportunity to get back to her problem. Again, the minute she'd started going off into her off the wall way of thinking... that Eliot liked to call 'crazytown', Hardison had again interrupted her with suggestions and corrections. It had been the literal last straw for her when she saw the 'okay mama... you're crazy, let me handle this' expression on his face.

After that, she'd never even mentioned a problem around Hardison for fear of having him want to talk to her about it. That had been that and she'd gone back to her usual routine of talking at Eliot during their time off and he didn't seem to have a problem with that so all was well in Parkerland. At least for a while...

Now she needed Eliot to talk _at_ as much as she needed him to talk _to_. Parker needed to figure this out and soon and there was no way in hell she was going to Sophie with this... this was, for once just too involved and important for her to turn to the dramatic and often well meaning but meddlesome older woman for advice.

Involved in her mental monologue, Parker almost missed the entire briefing session and snapped out of her reverie to find everyone (minus Eliot... he was still stubbornly looking at the screens in front of him... come on Eliot, how childish can you get?) staring at her with an expectant expression on her face. She looked around with something akin to a deer-in-the-head lights expression blooming on her face and it happened right when Eliot, who'd just been turning his head away caught the beginning of the look before anyone else saw it. With a slightly disapproving look settling on his own visage, he unobtrusively pointed at the model of a safe currently being shown on the display screen.

Relief settling over her when she recognized the safe from the picture, Parker rattled off the make, model and year of manufacture of the safe and also gave the team the approximate amount of time she would need to crack it.

"That is an SLS Gem Anti-Lance UL TXTL60... made in 1997. One of the strongest safes ever made, can be insured for in excess of 10 million dollars. I need 4 minutes and 53 seconds to crack it." she said as if it was the most common place thing in the world to be able to crack one of the best safes available to man in under 5 minutes.

It made Parker feel a bit happier about her absent mindedness at the meeting when she saw Eliot crack a small smile at her offhand reply about the safe. That settled, the meeting rapidly came to a close as they discussed and finalized exit strategies and a couple of back up plans.

Back up plans were a norm for the team as almost all of their primary plans got changed at the last minute... the mark reacted in a different way, the security detail created problems, what they had to retrieve was in a different location, someone found them out... oh so many things... anything that could affect their plans did affect them and by now, the team had learned to have atleast three back up plans in place even before they left the offices. Whatever else needed to be changed, they oculd take care of it realtime... they were pros and the best at this after all.

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><p>And that was what she kept telling herself as she and Eliot stood uncomfortably squashed together in an alcove off the corridor leading to the mark's office. Turned out that Hardison hadn't quite gotten around to turning off the cameras and Sophie's charms were, for once, not completely distracting the guards who were monitoring the feed from the said cameras.<p>

Of course, there were no moving laser fields or trip wire systems so it should've been quite the breeze to get the job done, but as it was, getting squashed against a warm but decidedly angry and sullen Eliot had it's ups and downs. The feeling of being held tight to his hard, muscular body was producing slight shivers in the thief's body that were very close to making themselves felt by the man holding her. But again, as the pleasant shivers died down, or rather were tamped down, Parker could feel reluctance on the part of the hitter... the feeling of trying to distance himself both mentally and physically from the situation they found themselves in.

She honestly tried... she tried to make him feel a bit more comfortable as they waited for Hardison's signal. But unfortunately, her tries to distance herself physically atleast from the hitter were all for vain as the decidedly tiny space offered no room for maneuvering and her attempts to shift only created further contact between the two of them. She was wriggling this way and that, trying to find a more comfortable position for the both of them when she was stopped cold by a very threatening and very real growl from Eliot.

Slowly looking up into his eyes with a bit more apprehension that she usually did, Parker could see that Eliot was very agitated and quite near the end of his tether. Wisely deciding to not more even an inch this side or that after that, the two of them silently if not amicably, waited for the hacker to give them the green light to enter the mark's office.

Barely a minute later, the two were inside the crooked defense contractor's office... Parker working on the safe that was right there, out in the open and Eliot working on the mark's computer, copying the information on the hard disk into a flash drive for Hardison to work on later. As per her earlier claim, Parker had the safe open in just under 5 minutes, making the rest of the team cheer for her back in the van while Eliot impatiently gestured for her to get on with it. Together, they got all that they needed from the safe, Eliot making sure Parker put back the huge 25 carat uncut ruby she found by simply glaring her into submission.

Another five minutes later saw them standing on the roof of the building, their exit plans A and B having crashed and burned simply by way of the guards seeing them leaving the mark's office when Sophie and Nate failed to distract one of the guards completely. In just under a minute after that, the whole building was under complete lockdown, leaving the roof as the only way for the retrieval specialists to exit the building.

Standing on the ledge, Parker worked at a furious speed with Eliot assisting her at every move, the two of them working seamlessly as the team they'd always been, getting the rig and the harnesses ready for the two of them to make the jump. As the thief made sure the braking system and the pulleys were working correctly on both their harnesses, Eliot made sure they had the right kind of rope wound properly and also if they had the necessary amount of it cued up. Looking off the ledge to the ground, he calculated about 50 meters worth of rope to be needed and listened to the electronic motor wind the rope till he was sure that just about 50 meters was unwound.

Turning to Parker, he questioned

"115?"

"Huh?"

"Is it still 115?"

"What is still 115?"

He stared at her as if he was frustrated with her antics. What antics? She couldn't understand head or tail of what he was asking. He sighed heavily as if asking someone for more patience and repeated the question

"Your weight Parker... is it still 115 pounds?"

She would've usually answered blithely, without considerations of modesty or shame or whatever it was that normal women felt when asked their weight by men, much rather the man they liked, but now, Parker had a very atypical, un-Parkerly blushed... and stammered.

That was the one thing that put the hitter on high alert. For one thing, Parker was never embarrassed about anything. This woman, who had no problems stripping in front of him or Hardison if the con called for costume changes, was blushing at his straight, simple question. A question which, just a month ago she'd answered in her very straight forward, typical manner. So it followed logically for the hitter that whatever reaction Parker was having to the question could only be the result of her trying to hide something. So he persisted.

"I asked you something Parker..."

"Ummm.."

"Parker... "

"Yeah. Okay... I heard you the first time..."

For a second there, Parker's eyes had an angry glint to them... the kitten was showing its claws and then, just as suddenly as the anger at his brutishness surfaced, it was replaced by an expressionless face and a significantly calmer demeanor

"Yeah... it's a 102 pounds now."

Ironically, had Parker not made such a big deal out of answering his question, Eliot might not have paid all that much attention to the figure she quoted. But as it was, right now, all his attention was on the thief and her answer triggered alarms everywhere in his brain. According to her calculations itself, she'd weighed a hundred and fifteen pounds just last month. Four weeks ago. The tiny blonde had lost almost fifteen pounds in just about twice the number of days.

He'd thought that she was looking paler, thinner and a little more tired these days but due to the tension that had existed between them, he hadn't paid as much attention as he should have, and for that he almost wanted to kick himself. He, the guy who was supposed to protect his team, the one who was supposed to make sure they all stayed safe and in one piece hadn't even noticed that one of his team was losing weight as if it was going out of fashion. He couldn't stop himself and in his astonishment and curiosity, the question was blurted out

"You lost close to 15 pounds in a month?"

"Actually no... it was not in a month... more like two weeks." came the studiedly nonchalant reply from the thief. Then she was ready with her stuff, standing up and motioning for him to take his harness so that they could clip in nad make the jump before the guards figured out their escape route and caught up with them. And then they were clipped together, jumping off the ledge, him holding onto her decidedly thin body, still trying to wrap his brain around the fact that Parker had lost such an alarming amount of weight in the last couple of weeks and none of them had noticed.

Once they were on the ground, he had no time to even open his mouth before they were disengaging from their harnesses, Nate and Sophie running up to the van as they all trooped into Lucille and made a mad dash for the offices.

It was half an hour later when the team decided to wrap up for the day, after Nate had made sure that everything that they needed to put this bad guy away for good was on that flash drive and in the incriminating documents Eliot and Parker had stolen from the safe. Eliot had been quite distracted through out the meeting, zoning out frequently. None of them bothered to ask, but Parker was sure that he was still thinking about what she'd said on the rooftop. If she knew him well, he would soon go from thinking or obsessing about it, to being angry about it and if possible, Parker wanted to be far away from the hitter before that phase turned on her.

But again, luck was clearly not on her side as she felt the hitter tense just as Nate told them to go home for the night. She could literally feel the retrieval specialist vibrate with the anger that was coursing through his veins... and she wanted to get as far away from it and him as soon as possible. Just as she was silently and unobtrusively making her way to her usual exit of the kitchen window, Parker found herself cornered by a slightly guilty and penitent looking Hardison.

Sighing internally, the thief reluctantly turned her attention to the hacker as she found herself attuned to the hitter's silent movements behind her. Eliot was standing behind her, silently observing, waiting for his moment to speak up. He'd seen Hardison waylay the little thief as she was about to make her escape and Eliot was sure he wasn't letting her go without getting some answers tonight. As he turned his eyes back to the tall, lanky form of the hacker squirming uncomfortably before the little thief, he would've laughed at the weird picture the two of them made at that moment had he not been so angry.

"Ummm... Parker... Can I.. That is to say... Uh... Can I maybe..."

_Sigh..._ "Just say it Hardison!"

Parker was getting frustrated by it now. She knew that Eliot was right behind her, waiting for his turn to ambush her and get answers out of her but she wasn't in any mood to answer anybody tonight. Neither was she in the mood to practice her new found social skills around her team members.

"Well... I need to speak with you. Can I drive you home or something?"

Parker opened her mouth to answer but the sound that came out was Eliot's voice. Startled, the two of them turned to see the hitter standing there, his arms folded and a very determined expression on his face.

"Sorry Hardison... She's comin' with me"

"She is?"

"I am?"

Both questions were uttered at the same time but with such different tones that it might've been greatly amusing to Eliot at another time. Parker's voice had been reluctant and petulant while Hardison's tone had reflected his astonishment at the hitter's announcement. The thief and the hacker turned to look at each other for a second before turning back to the hitter, who was smirking at them now.

"Yes she is."

And with that he dragged a clearly reluctant Parker away from a still surprised Hardison and towards the garage where his truck was parked.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is. **_

_**Hope all of you liked it. All sorts of feedback always welcome. So don't forget to review your thoughts and ideas for the coming chapters.**_

_**Lotsa luv and oatmeal raisin cookies **_

_**Macybear**_


	8. Chapter 8

_**A/N:Okay... so here it is, the next chapter. I know you guys 've all been waiting for the confrontation scene. I just hope I've done enough to make it seem like a natural extension of my Parker and Eliot and sincerely pray that they're not too OOC. If they are, feel free to send me a stinging review. :)**_

_**As it is, this story was formed due to drjones' prompt, so this and all other chapters are dedicated to you drjones. Hope you enjoy.**_

_**Also, some of the ideas employed in the later chapters were products of bprice's mind... thank you Bron. Hope you enjoy this too.**_

_**This chapter also goes out to all my friends on FF and all my readers... You are the reason I write everyday. Thank you so much. :)**_

_**Don't forget to send me your reviews, thoughts and ideas. They are absolutely invaluable.**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 08<strong>

The next twenty minutes of Parker's life were probably the longest and significantly harder than any other twenty minutes of her recent life. Even taking the night when she and Eliot had the fight into consideration. At least then, he was shouting at her, communicating with her... but this silence, this threatening, ominous, vibrating, almost alive silence between them was clawing at her, literally suffocating her with it's intensity but the little thief knew that saying or doing anything more would only result in an even worse situation for the two of them.

She'd somehow get through to him... she was sure of that. In fact, this was probably a blessing in disguise. She'd been trying to find ways of getting him to come to her and here he was, almost kidnapping her, so that he could yell at her. The irony of it wasn't lost on the thief as she struggled to suppress the misplaced and certainly mistimed mirth that was threatening to erupt into a fit of giggles as she sat in the passenger seat of Eliot's truck speeding its way to the outskirts of the city.

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><p>Eliot Spencer wasn't pissed. Oh no... what he felt was way beyond that. He was flat-out, nothing held back, full on angry, just one step south of outright rage. And the frustrating thing was that it was all directed at himself this time. He'd as good as failed to do his job... he'd failed to protect his team. He, who claimed to take his job so seriously that it was the number one priority in his life, had failed to notice that one of his team members was just wasting away in the last couple of weeks.<p>

He still couldn't wrap his brain around it. How could a human being lose 15 pounds in just as many days? It was clear to him that Parker hadn't been eating or sleeping properly for more than two weeks and he was so frustrated at her lack of self-preservation that he was ready to yell at, punch, kick and just destroy something... or someone. But he had to rein himself in. It wouldn't do them any good if he started losing his control while they were on the road. He'd wait till they got to his apartment and then he'd just tear into her.

And the fact that she was clearly trying to hold back her laughter wasn't helping him any either. She was completely crazy, that one... he might've expected a load of different reactions from her but definitely not giggling. Of course, she wouldn't be laughing when he got done with her. What the hell did Parker think she was doing putting both herself and her team in danger by pulling such stunts he couldn't understand.

A tiny little voice in his head that sounded a helluva lot like Parker said that she hadn't actually done anything to endanger the team this time but he shut that voice up by thinking that she'd put herself in danger and if one of them was in danger, it affected the rest of them too. So he did have a legitimate reason to chew her out tonight and he was gonna make sure she understood just what she'd done by the time he was done.

Back on the roof, he'd been quite worried about the baldness of her statement when she'd corrected him by saying that she'd lost those 15 pounds in the last two weeks and not in the last month. There had been a definite glint of anger in her eyes when he'd pestered her for an answer but somehow she'd managed to answer him in a distracted and normal manner, as if both the question and the nonchalant answer were inconsequential.

Well he'd tell her how inconsequential it all was... just the thought of all the things that could've gone wrong with Parker due to her crazy lack of a sense of self-preservation got the hitter even more steamed and it contributed to making the ride a far more silent and uncomfortable one for the little thief. Looking at her now, almost squirming in her seat with discomfort at his silence, Eliot almost wanted to smirk at getting that reaction out of her. He hoped for her sake that she had a good... no... not good, great reason for not taking care of herself in the past couple of weeks.

He might not have had the best relationship with her for the last month or so but he was a professional to his last breath, no matter what Parker liked to think and there was no way he was letting her off easy tonight. With that thought in his mind, Eliot parked the truck in his garage and without a word proceeded to the other side to pull open the passenger door for Parker. It was the damned southern gentleman's manners ingrained deep inside him that refused to listen even to the darkest of his threats.

The two of them had barely stepped across his threshold when he lit into her.

"Just what the hell were you thinking Parker? Were you even thinking? What are you trying to pull here huh?"

"E-Eliot... What is this all about? I have no idea why you're so angry... Please calm down."

Parker's voice was subdued and slightly bewildered. She'd expected the hitter to be angry... he'd obviously been quite angry with her over the last couple of weeks and she'd expected nothing less than confrontation tonight. But even prepared for it, Parker couldn't help but take a step back in the face of his fury. She honestly couldn't understand why he was making such a big deal out of some weight she'd lost. Okay sure, she'd lost a little more weight than was healthy in that period of time but it wasn't like she was on death's door or something.

"Calm down?... Calm down? I'll show you calm down. And don't gimme that I don't know what you're talkin' about speech. I know you know exactly what I am talkin' about."

"Okay Eliot... Stop. I have no idea why you are making such a big deal out of this... okay I admit, I lost some weight over the last two weeks... why is it such a huge thing? Why are you getting so angry about it? Or is this even about that?"

"Parker, have you seen yourself in the mirror lately? Because if you have, then you're clearly not seeing what I am seeing right now."

Her genuine confusion seemed to have reached through the fog of his anger. His voice was slightly softer and less accusing when he spoke again.

"And what is that?"

"You're thin... not slim... thin. Your bones are sticking out, your skin has gone pale and clammy, your eyes have dark circles under them, your hair... it's just lank and lifeles-"

"Oh way to make a girl feel good about herself Eliot"

Her sarcasm was met with a penetrating stare and he turned to fully face her, his face devoid of anger for the first time since entering his home. The concern that had always been there, which she believed she'd destroyed by her actions that night shone through... though coupled with a little wariness that she'd never detected from the hitter before.

"What are doing to yourself Parker? What're you trying to prove here?"

Though the question had been hard, his voice hadn't matched it... there was concern and a slight hint of anxiety in that low, growly voice of his that pierced right through her multiple layers and reached where it should... her heart.

That was when she recognized it. Eliot was taking a step whether he realized it or not... in her direction. After sending her away, after believing that she shared nothing, not even common camaraderie with him, if he was willing to take the step and show her that he had been concerned, he'd worried about her, it had to have taken a huge amount of decision-making on Eliot's part. Had she been in his position, Parker knew she would've definitely not taken the first step in establishing contact between them. But here he was, yelling at her, making his concern for her known in the most obvious possible way. He was worried about her reaction, but he hadn't let it stop him from getting through to her and for that she was grateful.

And that... only that prompted her to answer his question truthfully. Parker looked up into the blue eyes staring at her as if she was a conundrum he had no idea how to solve and instantly saw the warmth that had been so conspicuously missing since that night. There was also a new distance that had been created then, a new wariness that had been absent before... but she understood. With all the weirdness and instability they'd both gone through in life, it was extremely hard to let someone in... to trust them again.

But she knew that he was willing to give her the second chance... he was willing to open himself up to more hurt for her sake and she silently promised herself and him that she would do everything that was necessary to regain his trust. She was ready to do whatever it took for him to trust her again and open up to her enough for him to understand that she was there to stay in his life. Her heart buoyed by the knowledge, she felt a little less embarrassed admitting to the true reason she'd lost so much weight.

"Well... It's just that I haven't been eating or sleeping all that well in the last two weeks..."

"And why is that Parker?"

She took a deep breath, as if preparing herself for something and blurted the whole thing

"It just... It feels awful when we fight and then you had a fight with Hardison, you and he weren't talking, Hardison kissed me and I had no idea what to do so I ran off without saying anything and then I had to plan how to get you to listen to me so that I could tell you that I was sorry for whatever I'd said before and that I only said that because I was so nervous and I didn't understand what it meant or how I had to act around you anymore and then... it was just too much going on-"

"Wait what?... Hardison kissed you?"

"Seriously. I say all that and that's what you get stuck on?"

The answer to her question came in the form of folded arms and another one of Eliot's patented glares. Parker sighed and shifted uncomfortably. She's already said so much... revealed so much... well, it was better to get it all over with in one stroke.

"Y-Yeah... that day when you had a fight with Hardison. After you left I started crying for some reason and he tried to comfort me. But he ended up kissing me and said that he liked me... I didn't... I don't think about him that way but I was so distracted then, I wanted to go after you, I just ran away without telling him anything. After that, I had to make plans to somehow get you to listen to me and preparations for that took most of the ten days I wasn't in Boston. After I came back, I decided to call Hardison and talk to him when a strange woman answered his phone..."

As her explanation petered off, Eliot glared meaningfully at her again, making her resume the narrative. He was going under information overload. The hitter was getting so much new information from the little blonde that his brain was literally refusing to process most of it, just catching onto the one or the other point that garnered his notice. So he was little hard pressed to digest what she was saying when she started up again.

"It was like half past seven or something yesterday morning... Nate and Sophie had gone to meet a client for breakfast, you weren't around and Hardison had still not come in for the day... so i decided to call him and tell him that I wanted to talk to him. When I called his phone a woman picked up. She said that her name was Shayla Forrester and that she'd spent the night with Hardison at his place. She also asked a lot of questions and said that she liked him and wanted to be in a relationship with him if he liked her too. So I just told her that I wasn't his girlfriend and that if she hurt him, you and I would hunt her down. That's it"

A long silence followed her description of her conversation with Shayla. Parker actually looked up to see if Eliot had zoned out or something because she hadn't gotten any reaction from him ever since she'd started her explanation. She could see a slight hint of surprise and a whole lot of confusion in there. It was as if he was completely out of his depth and unable to understand a word of what she was saying. Just as she was about to say something more, his voice interrupted her

"So you're sayin that Hardison kissed you one day and a week later he's spendin the night with some other chick he picked up in a bar?"

The slight hurt that Parker had felt at Hardison's actions yesterday felt like they'd been bandaged up and taken care of when she heard the anger and incredulity in the hitter's voice

"It was a club... the Horde Club not a bar... but yeah. That's what he basically did."

"It looks like I am gonna have to teach the Ice man some manners and give him some lessons on how to treat a woman..."

"Stop right there. You're not going to doing anything of that sort."

The immediate reply, the steel in her eyes and the strong determination in the thief's voice made Eliot pause better than anything else could have. He was intrigued at this side of her and his curiosity was kindled... just who was Parker really? Was she the bundle of crazy that jumped off buildings for fun, was she the carefree child she became when she was with people she liked, was she this strong, determined person he saw before him or was she the slight, broken human being he'd seen occasionally when she was down and out. Even after spending so much time in her company, Eliot could hardly make head or tail of her personality. But if there was one thing the hitter knew for sure, it was the fact that there was a helluva lot more to Parker than she ever let out.

"I have no problems with Hardison and Shayla trying to work it out between them and trust me, she was pissed off enough after our conversation that she'd have given Hardison a really hard time yesterday. So I think he got all that he deserved. Plus, as it is, I was only planning to tell him that I didn't like him in taht romantic sort of way and that anything other than friendship wouldn't work out between us... so he's kinda saved me from having to explain that to him."

As he pondered that statement and allowed it's truth, something else pinged in his brain

"Okay... so I got all that. But you still haven't told me why is it that you haven't been eating these last few days?"

She did something that he hadn't expected at all. Again. She blushed... again. Till date, Eliot had maybe seen Parker blush... once... and that too more from pleasure than from embarrassment. But to see the unique occurrence twice in a single day was as astonishing as Sophie dressing in something that was two seasons old.

"Ummm... welll..."

"What is it Parker?"

The slight edge in his voice convinced her that she couldn't get away with much more prevaricating. God!... he was so difficult sometimes.

"You weren't around for the last couple of weeks" she announced after a lengthy silence, as if it explained everything.

Eliot, for one was completely in the dark and the water that had just shown signs of clearing, was thoroughly muddied again.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well... You know how I mostly spend my days eating cereal and fortune cookies..."

"Yeah..." it was accompanied by a long suffering sigh and a pointed glare that had the thief almost chuckling

"It's because I hate cooking and I don't really like eating out. I normally eat because you cook. You weren't cooking these past few days. You didn't cook... so I didn't eat"

This statement, delivered in her patented off the cuff, straight forward manner hit Eliot with the impact of a sledgehammer hitting sheet glass. Result... shattered glass everywhere. The only reaction he was able to summon up was a very eloquent

"Oh..."

"Yyeahhh..."

Now that Parker had told him her reason for not eating properly these past two weeks, she didn't know what to do. She was getting uncomfortable... her body almost vibrating with the need to move, to do... something. She felt the urgent need to just throw herself off a tall building and feel the wind in her face, her hair, whistling around her body as she fell... experience the freedom of the outdoors, the freedom of the fall and the security that she felt only when she was rappelling or being around one person... the one she needed to get away from now.

She stood squirming awkwardly in front of Eliot, just waiting for him to react in someway. But there was no immediate reaction forthcoming, which only made her even more nervous. After a long minute, it became too much for the little thief and she needed to just get outta there

"So... yeah. I am gonna just go now. You... you think about... whatever it is you have to think about and I... I'll see you tomorrow"

With that thrown over her shoulder at the still silent hitter, Parker turned and literally ran out of his apartment, leaving an all but flabbergasted Eliot alone to puzzle and straighten out the umpteen number of revelations he'd had today.

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><p>Much, much later that night, after Parker had jumped from at least four building on her way back to the warehouse and Eliot had finally roused himself into movement from his statue like posture that Parker had left him in, both of them were in their respective beds, still unable to get anything but a disturbed rest.<p>

Parker clutched Bunny to her as if the stuffed toy was her lifeline and curled tightly around the soft toy in her bed as her normal nightmares of her childhood morphed into ones in which Eliot laughed at her when she told him she liked him and told her that no one would like someone who was so broken... that there was something wrong with her if she thought he would like her back.

On the other side of town, Eliot was facing a completely different predicament. The hitter usually needed only two to three hours of sleep a night... the 90 minute thing had just been to fool Hardison, who'd just lapped it all up in building the badass Spencer persona in his mind. But tonight, Eliot found that he couldn't get even his normally small quota of shut eye. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see Parker in all her svelte, blonde, wide eyed glory adorned in that mind blowing pink dress.

Plus, all the things that she'd told him today were running on an infinite loop inside his brain. He'd been unable to stop thinking about their talk from the evening and his brain was just now processing some of the things that she'd said. Eliot felt something in the region of his heart warm at the knowledge that she'd actually said sorry for her actions from before... a first for the little thief. Though he had been the one to take the first step in mending fences between them by telling her that he was worried about her, she had tried to take possibly the biggest step that was necessary for their relationship to get back on track.

Though she hadn't actually apologized today, she'd said a number of times that she had planned something that would make sure he stayed and was forced to listen to her explanations. Eliot hated being cornered or enclosed in any space... it came with the territory of being a fighter. But this time, it almost seemed worth getting caught if he got to listen to the crazy blonde explain her side of things... maybe things were just getting interesting. He'd just have to wait and see.

With that thought, Eliot closed his eyes and quite enjoying the beautiful visions of Parker that came with his dreams, slept for the better part of the night, his mind almost free of the anger, confusion and the frustration that had defined his recent existence.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is... another chapter done. We're slowly but surely on our way to working things out... and maybe have a little bit of fun along the way.**_

_**So tell me what you thought of this chapter and the fic as a whole. Your comments and suggestions are invaluable and very, very helpful to a fledgling writer like myself.**_

_**Lotsa luv and cute li'l ginger bread men,**_

_**Macybear**_


	9. Chapter 9

_**A/N: Hi there... here's the next chapter of our fic. Hope you guys like it as much as the previous chapters.**_

_**Eagerly awaiting your feedback and reviews. :)**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 09<strong>

The next day saw two of the Leverage Associates team react in completely opposite ways to the drama that had occurred the previous night.

While Parker, who'd clearly had a bad night, was almost regretting saying and in the process revealing so many things at Eliot's the last evening, she couldn't bring herself to find any enthusiasm for her inevitable day in the office. She knew just what she'd said to Eliot last night and knew quite well just what he could deduce from everything she had and hadn't said. Parker had always been a straight forward and honest person, even though she was a thief and being in such an emotionally exposed and diminutive position was affecting her more than she cared to admit.

For once, she was angry at herself for running away without finishing the discussion and she was angry at Eliot for letting her go. She wasn't sure of where she stood... where they stood when it came to their talk and the confusion was taking a toll on her

"Oh Bunny... I just wanna stay here and sleep" she said with a look that had both longing and a bit of fear, looking at the twin bed that had been the location of the latest in her series of nightmare induced sleepless nights. For once, she wished she could sleep without any nightmares or even dreams plaguing her... but knew that it was asking for the moon... something not even master thief she was, could steal.

Sighing as she looked at the timepiece on her nightstand, Parker pulled Bunny in an extra hard hug, as if she could get some strength from the stuffed toy and left the warehouse in the direction of Nate's loft.

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><p>The other side of town saw Eliot Spencer wake up at the crack of dawn like was his usual routine. The hitter had surprised even himself by sleeping quite well for almost 6 hours, something he hadn't done in a long time, his memory easily going back years in search of the previous occurrence. But of course, given the pleasant dreams he'd had when he slipped into slumber, it was no big surprise that he'd been relaxed enough to sleep through the night.<p>

Last evening, too many revelations had crowded his brain, each one demanding his attention and somewhere in the whole confusion, a lot of small details seemed to have sunk into temporary oblivion... Not so now that he'd had a whole night to sleep on it. Now as the hitter scrolled back to his memories of the evening, so many little things that he'd missed came to the fore... and one or two big things too.

The first thing that had hit him last night had been the fact that his little thief, the one who never apologized for anything, had actually tried saying sorry. She, who'd not a year ago, felt no guilt at risking any of their lives during a con understood that she'd not only hurt him physically but also emotionally, and was attempting to correct her wrongs. That fact in itself, while being good enough for him to celebrate, paled in comparison to all the other things that were making themselves known to him now.

She'd actually said... yeah, he wasn't imagining it. She'd actually said that she felt awful when the two of them fought and that day when he'd had that stupid stand-off with Hardison, she'd wanted to come after him when he left... she hadn't stayed back with Hardison because that was where she wanted to be. The memory of being told by Parker that Hardison had kissed her and professed to liking her popped up but was pushed to one side so that he could concentrate on other things... things that didn't make him want to pound on something... or somebody.

Trying to focus on something else brought up another memory of the previous night, this one marginally more comforting. Parker had babbled quite a lot during her confused explanations last evening but one of the things she'd said was that she'd planned something for him... something that would force him to listen to her explanations. She'd also let slip that preparations for whatever it was had taken her the better part of the ten days she'd been AWOL. It was quite intriguing to say the least and honestly extremely frustrating for him now that he hadn't waited just a bit more to yell at her. If he hadn't noticed her thinness when he did, maybe she might even have put her plan into action and he wouldn't have been sitting at his breakfast table now, curiosity burning through his veins.

Okay... he had to find out what it was that Parker felt would make him sit in one place and listen to her... what it was she thought was required for him to stay put while she made her explanations... exactly what it was that she thought could contain him. The prospect of getting to know what the best thief in the world had planned for him gave wings to his feet and got him pushing his custom chopper to go at twice his normal speed.

Once the hitter was on his bike and making his way to the office, another memory of last night struck him and this one, made Eliot cringe a bit... Of course Parker had been completely and utterly foolish about it but Eliot couldn't quite get it out of his brain that maybe, in some obscure way he had been equally responsible for her current physical condition. Obviously he hadn't asked her to stop eating or taking care of herself and of course, it wasn't his job to make sure she ate everytime... he wasn't her keeper though the good Lord knew she needed one most of the time, but the gentleman in him Sister Mary Clarence had raised since he'd come to the Orphanage at the age of 8, wouldn't let him make her shoulder the whole responsibility for this whole mess.

Before he knew it Eliot found himself pulling up into the parking lot of the supermarket near his home that stocked most of his favorite organic vegetables and produce. Apparently, his inner self had made the decision for him when he'd been busy blaming himself and moping. Smirking at the fact that the little blonde had reduced him to having dialogue's with himself at 7 in the morning outside a supermarket, Eliot stepped into the long, low structure, his mind already buzzing with tons of ideas for healthy but tasty meals he could cook for the team... and Parker.

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><p>Parker was praying to every deity she was aware of and Saint Nick that morning as she silently swung her way into Nate's loft through her usual entrance at the kitchen window. It was well known among the team that she much preferred to use this entrance than any other conventional means of entry after Nate had tried once, during the first couple of months of settling in this city, to subtly... or not so subtly send her a message by locking the window. She'd just jimmied the pressure sensitive, locking system and the dead bolt, all from the outside in under a minute before calmly pushing the pane up and swinging her way inside as if this was what happened everyday. After that no one had any objections to her using the window as her means of entering and leaving the loft and their offices.<p>

Now as the blonde thief silently jumped from her perch on the window ledge into the kitchen, she could see that no one... not even Saint Nick had been listening to her that day. Because right there in front of her, large as life and twice as colorful in his chosen attire of the day, with a really uncomfortable expression, stood one of the two people she'd hoped to avoid for the day... Alec Hardison.

"Parker..."

"Hi Hardison!... What're you doing her so early? Nice day isn't it?... Anyways, gotta go... so many things to do, so little time you know..."

Her attempts at sliding her way around the hacker while she unobtrusively kept up a cover of pointless chatter did not seem to be working as was obvious by the knowing and slightly amused expression on Hardison's face as he turned to face her.

"Parker..."

"Not working for you huh?..."

He shook his head no at that and Parker's face fell

"Do we have to do this?" she queried, her voice a little petulant

"Come on Parker... this is a lot more uncomfortable for me than it is for you. So can we just please get it over with?"

Sighing at that, Parker nodded and came back to sit on the kitchen bar, her feet swinging in an effort to keep her discomfort at bay. She knew that even though both of them were insanely uncomfortable with this, once this conversation, no matter how difficult, was done and over with, things would start looking better... or at least she hoped so. It was the only thing that made her come back into the kitchen and take her seat at the bar.

She heard Hardison take a deep breath as she turned to face him and she shut her eyes tight and they both heard each other start to speck simultaneously

"Parker, I owe you a massive apology.. I-"

"I'm so sorry Hardison"

Their respective sentences overlapped but both of them were near enough to make out what the other was saying

"Wait. What?"

"What?"

Again, their words overlapped as the astonished hacker and the equally surprised thief stared at each other. Hardison was the first to recover from the stupor

"Wait Parker... Why are you apologizing?"

"Why are you apologizing Hardison?"

"I asked you first Parker..."

This was accompanied by a 'and I mean it girl' stare that he'd perfected over the last year and it had it's desired effect on her

"Okay... Y-You said that day when you and Eliot had a fight that you l-liked me... you even kissed me and I ran off without saying anything. And after I got back from the vacation that Nate told us to take, I have been avoiding you because I didn't want to have this conversation... So I'm sorry"

"Parker... girl, if there is anyone who should be apologizing it should be me. I know that you didn't answer me that day, I was a little cut up about that but I get it. I shouldn't have dumped all of that on you then when you were obviously emotional but all I can say is that it was something that felt right then. I am not saying that it was the right thing to do, just that it felt like it. And I am so sorry for that..."

As she opened her mouth to retort, he continued on motioning her to be silent for just a bit more

"And I got to know from Shayla... that you'd called yesterday morning. I don't want to say I am sorry for meeting a woman like her Parker. I know I shouldn't be saying this to you but thank you. Thank you for not answering me that day... because if you had, I wouldn't have started going to that club that night and if I hadn't, I would've never met Shayla there again the day before. I liked you a lot Parker... I still do but what I feel for Shayla... that's just so much more... and so different from what I've felt for anyone else, ever."

As the hacker caught himself going into raptures about who he now knew to be the love of his life, he forcibly pulled himself to a stop and turning to Parker with a guilty expression attempted to apologize again. But she wasn't having any of it.

"Stop it Hardison. I am not angry with you for finding someone you like that much. I was actually avoiding you for the last couple of days because I couldn't figure out how to tell you that I didn't like you like that... you know in the romantic sense. So in a way, you kinda did me a favor by letting me off the hook. By the way, I know she must've given you a hard time yesterday morning after she spoke to me... so... what did she do?... Did you get your ass kicked?"

The mood, which had been heavy and sombre, broke into something much lighter with Parker's comment. Her casual teasing and friendly queries made it clear to the hacker that he had nothing to apologize for and that everything was still the same between them. He couldn't thank the lord enough for making Parker the amazing person she was. All he could do now was hope that whatever was going on between Eliot and her could get resolved as easily as things had gotten resolved between the two of them. That also reminded the young hacker that he had things to smooth over with their retrieval specialist too, something that he wasn't particularly looking forward to.

Memories of that day came to the fore as he looked at the smiling face of his friend sitting next to him. When he'd stepped in between Parker and Eliot that day, he'd come to know that he'd just put his foot into something much bigger and much deeper than any of the rest of them knew. There were too many emotions running rampant around the pair of them that he couldn't even make sense out of. Whatever had been the problem, had still not resolved itself, at least till the previous night. The memory of Eliot almost kidnapping the little thief came to the fore and Hardison paused in his thoughts to take a good look at Parker.

She looked as if she was okay... she was thinner and somehow, a little more restless, as if she'd had a bad night, but she looked pretty much like she had the previous day. Not much had changed after the curious kidnapping and Hardison almost couldn't stop himself from asking Parker about it. Exactly what had happened between the hitter and the thief... and he wasn't just talking about yesterday. Nate, Sophie and himself... none of them knew about what had exactly caused the big blow up or the subsequent cold shoulder treatment... from both sides. Though both he and Sophie had been insanely curious, Nate had more or less ordered them to stay out of it and they hadn't been able to go against Nate's pseudo threat.

But now that the worst of it seemed to have passed, Hardison was burning with curiosity as to what had exactly happened... both two weeks ago and yesterday. Maybe he'd never get the nerve up to ask... maybe Parker might tell him herself, or maybe he'd never find out... but Hardison hoped to hell and back that whatever the problem was between Eliot and Parker, would resolve itself.

He hadn't been kidding when he'd told Parker that they were more than a team. After Nana, Nate, Sophie, Eliot, Parker and now Shayla, were the only people the young hacker counted as family. He'd lost too many people and things in life to let his new family get wrecked due to a misunderstanding. He wouldn't step in between Eliot and Parker again, he'd learned his lesson that day. Hardison still couldn't forget either the pure rage he'd seen in Eliot's eyes that day or the sheer misery and brokenness that the hitter had exhibited at being faced with Parker and with the idea of using force against him.

Whatever it was, he'd learned his lesson that day... he wasn't stepping into that again but he was definitely gonna be standing on the sidelines, hoping and praying for his family... for both of them to work it out between themselves.

That thought swirling in his brain, Hardison turned to look at Parker again and finding her staring at him with a quizzical expression, he shook his head answering her silent question and leaned forward a bit in his chair to wrap his arms around her thin form, hugging her to him. As the surprised thief adjusted to the fact that she was being hugged by her friend, Hardison almost chuckled as she snuggled into the embrace and returned it with one of her own bone crushing hugs.

The two of them were so involved in their mutual expressions of friendship and filial affection, that they failed to notice the front door open and a cheerful hitter walk into the kitchen with his arms full of brown paper bags overflowing with produce.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is... Hope all of you liked it.**_

_**Any sort of feedback makes a writer's day :)**_

_**Please don't forget to send in your reviews and thoughts... any ideas for this and other fics also welcomed.**_

_**Lotsa luv and shortbread cookies**_

_**Macybear**_


	10. Chapter 10

_**A/N: Hi!... First off, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry christmas and a happy new year 2012!**_

_**I know that I haven't posted any updates on this story for a looong time. Sorry abt that... Will try to wrap this up in a neat little package as soon as I can. Maybe as a late Christmas present to all my readers and reviewers, for being so patient and supportive. Thank you so much :)**_

_**Now, on with it.**_

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><p><strong>Chapter 10<strong>

Eliot Spencer, retrieval specialist and hitter extraordinaire, had a couple of small, teeny weeny secret weaknesses. Gardening and shopping... the grocery kind. An organic supermarket overflowing with fresh produce and plants would be Spencer's version of what heaven should look like and any opportunity to shop for food was taken as seriously as any job the team went on.

So this morning's shopping spree was as much therapy for the hitter as loading up on amazing foods for the team, especially the emaciated little thief that had run out of his house the previous night after dumping a boatload of revelations on him, running off while he was still reeling under their weight.

Eliot had almost wanted to kick himself for letting Parker go without trying to even feed her anything last night. If it had been possible for a human man to kick his own ass, it might've been done today... but that's just digressing from the whole point. As it was, Eliot had been to stunned by some of the revelation from the night before to actually pay attention to the minute goings on and consequently hadn't really been able to stop the blonde thief before she's pulled a runner.

But today was another day and with his thoughts all sorted out and lined up like the bottles in his shelf, Eliot was ready to face the day, the team and his little thief with a bag of fresh and healthy produce by his side. He'd just let himself into Nate's loft and decided on garden vegetable omelet's for breakfast, when he walked in on a scene in the kitchen that might've made him just turn around and walk back out just days before. As it was, Eliot felt his hand squeeze and squish a tomato inside his grocery bag at what he saw and hurriedly loosened his fingers around the already destroyed vegetable... fruit... whatever it was.

He must've made some sort of sound without even realizing it because the two people with their arms around each other in front of him broke apart as if they'd been shot at. The happy, relaxed expressions on their faces turned to surprise, shock and a healthy dose of anxiety... and a hint of something that made Eliot wish he'd turned around and walked out after all. The slight hint of fear on both Hardison and Parker's faces, brought it home to the hitter just what they thought of him. He couldn't really fault them for their perception... he hadn't really given anyone in the team a chance to get to know the other side of Eliot Spencer. Preferring to keep his personal and professional lives separate had led to this but if keeping his team safe and out of danger meant that he had to personally distance himself from them, he would.

What he had seen in the kitchen just a few seconds ago might not have confused or baffled him so much, if it hadn't been for the previous night. He'd thought he'd started understanding what went on inside Parker's brain, but seeing what he had just now, it just made it clear to Eliot that he'd not even begun scratching the surface of the conundrum that was Parker. If he didn't know better, he could've sworn Parker had said somethings yesterday that might've indicated feelings for him... but then again, it had been Parker. Any other woman and he would've been sure of it, but with Parker... one just never knew. Like she'd been saying something yesterday and just run off the next minute... and here she was the next morning, hugging Hardison like he was her boyfriend who'd just returned from war.

Judging from the awkward silence that was hanging around the three of them and the fact that the squished tomato's juices were beginning to seep through his paper grocery bag, Eliot knew that it was better, for all of them, if he simply did not react to the little scene that had played out in front of him. Obviously, the two people involved hadn't expected anyone else to walk in, so there was no point in belaboring upon the point. Gagging and hog tying the little voice screaming over and over in his head that Parker had said last night that she liked him, Eliot just nodded as politely at the couple in front of him and proceeded to unload his grocery bags onto the counter and started to put everything that the bags held in their places in the kitchen.

There was a ten second silence, more awkward than the one they'd been subjected to before his greeting, followed by the shuffling sound of Hardison's size eleven shoes dithering around the kitchen as the hacker tried to decide what it was he wanted to do. Finally, there was a deep breath and suddenly, the hitter, who was currently engaged in putting the unbruised tomatoes into their container in Nate's refrigerator, felt two arms go around his middle, hugging him so briefly that it might not even count as one, before he felt the figure move back

"Good Morning Eliot... I just... I just wanted to say that it is nice to see you this fine morning and... and... It is - I am just going to go now... You have a nice day"

"Hardison..."

One word from the hitter had the rapidly retreating hacker stop and turn, though he looked as if he would pay all the money in the world to be anywhere else at that moment. The expression on his face triggered the memory of what he'd seen on his and Parker's face just moments ago and it made Eliot wish that he hadn't actually stopped the younger man. Watching him shuffle his feet uncomfortably while standing in front of the slightly shorter, older man might've made the hitter smile before... now, it just drove home the fact that he'd successfully managed to alienate his whole team in his quest to protect them from anything that could hurt them.

"What is it?... and don't lie this time... or chicken out"

Wincing slightly at the sharp tone in the hitter's voice, Hardison shuffled his feet uncomfortably again before taking another deep breath and looking around the room, as if searching for inspiration. Eliot's eyes following his, made the same circuit, only to find that the blonde thief had conveniently used the little scene between him and Hardison to leave the kitchen unobtrusively. A fact that had just seemed to have dawned on Hardison as well... well at least, they were being treated equally in that, if nothing else. Unaccountably irritated, Eliot glowered at the man in front of him, before dialing it down to just a glare. It wouldn't do to intimidate when he just wanted some information.

"Hardison?"

The single word growled out in a testy and slightly aggravated tone did all the wonders nothing else had been able to, in the last five minutes

"Y-Yeah... about that. I-... I just wanted to..."

The hacker broke off, wiping his hands on the seat of his pants and starting to pace along the length of the small kitchenette. Eliot patiently waited for the younger man to find his words... well maybe not so patiently, he was a hitter and not very well known for his patient and affable demeanor after all

"Look Eliot... I just... I just wanted to say that I am sorry."

Okay. That hadn't been what he was expecting to hear from Hardison. If anything, he'd had visions of everything from 'Thank you for getting me and Parker together' to 'Will you be my best man?' with the hugging scene that had been on in the kitchen, replaying in his mind.

"What?"

The volume might've come out a little bit loud because Eliot still hadn't gotten over the confusion he felt over the hacker's apology

"Sorry... Why exactly are you apologizing to me?"

This time, it was the hacker's turn to look perplexed.

"Well... It might be for the fact that I intruded on whatever is going on between you and Parker man. And I know I shouldn't have... but at that time, I was... ummm... how should I put it... kinda mistaken on exactly what my feelings were on the situation, and jumped in without thinking."

After rushing through what was a thoroughly confusing explanation at best, to Eliot at least, Hardison took another deep breath, but this time, he was looking at Eliot like he was expecting the hitter to say something. There was something expectant about his expression that Eliot couldn't understand for the life of him. What was it that Hardison was expecting him to say? That was when some of what he'd said sank in.

"Wait. What?"

"What do you mean 'What?'"?

"Dammit Hardison!... Did you just say 'mistaken on your feelings?'..."

"Well yeah. I did... and so I just wanted to apologize for my intervention that day... I shouldn't hav- "

"Wait... Stop. Go back... mistaken?... about your feelings?"

At the slightly irritated nod of the hackers head, Eliot barely restrained himself from growling again and asked

"What exactly were you mistaken about?"

Whatever it was that he expected the hacker to say, he certainly hadn't expected the grown man to blush... or at least Eliot thought that Hardison had blushed. It was quite hard to say with the man's skin tone. But again, discomfort in stance, stiff arms, sliding eyes and a lowered head usually meant embarrassment when it came to the hacker. Body language never lied... well almost never.

"Ummm... do we have to talk about that? Can't we just let that go and be happy that we're all gettin along and still in one piece?"

"Hardison..." there was that growl again

"Okay, okay. Well... as you probably know, I had a crush on Parker and-"

"Wait, wait... _**had**_?"

"Well, yeah. Of course... Once I got to know Shayla, I knew that what I'd felt for Parker was just like... you know... sorta like a crush... What?"

The last word was almost involuntarily uttered as the hitter had been looking at Hardison like he was suddenly speaking in Klingon

"Shayla?"

"Oh yeah... I forgot. You probably don't know about her."

"Actually, I do... I remember now... Shayla Forrester. You met her at a club... the... Horde club? or something... I heard"

"Oh. You did. Well... so... yeah. Shayla... She's completely awesome... and I think I love her"

"Oh... you do, do you?"

"Y-Yeah..."

"So... What about Parker?"

"What about her?"

"You said you had feelings for her... so now you have this Shayla, what about Parker?"

"It's like I said. After I got to know Shayla, I knew that whatever I felt for Parker wasn't the real thing. It was just liking the idea of having someone... rather than liking Parker per se you know?... I guess... I just had a crush on her and now I don't"

"What about Parker's feelings?"

"Wait... Why are you so particularly chatty today?... and what is this unusual concern over Parker's feelings?"

To his utter astonishment, Hardison had an up close and personal experience of Eliot Spencer blushing. It was a sight the hacker had never thought he would ever, ever see in his life and he was so flustered at the sight that it thankfully never even crossed his mind to get his smartphone out and snap a picture of it. Which it might have under different circumstances, leading to the predictable and highly painful punching from Eliot along with his previously in one piece smart phone lying at his feet in smithereens, if not shoved into his body via various orifices, a favorite threat when it came to the hitter.

"N-No... nothing like that. I was just... You know what?... Just get out of here... I have things to do"

"Oh no you don't. Now that you've opened this whole can of worms all by yourself, you're gonna have to deal with the fallout too Mr. I-have-things-to-do. Of course you have things to do... you have to explain to me why you care so much about Parker's feelings and while we are at it, you can also go ahead and tell me how it is that you know about me and Shayla so much"

"I don't have to explain anything to anyone Hardison. Now get out of here before I do something I regret..."

"Look Eliot... you just got here, I just got here and let me tell ya... I have all day. I will do whatever it is I have to do to bug you so much that you'll tell me everything just to get me off your back. Now... do you wanna tell me by yourself or do you wanna go through that and tell me later?"

"Get out Hardison... I mean it"

Contrary to what he'd believed, it only made the tall young man fold his arms in front of his chest, arch one eyebrow in a creepy imitation of Sophie's gesture and start tapping a converse clad foot on the tiled kitchen floor.

"I am waitin..." came the sing song reply, only making Eliot more uncomfortable with the situation

"You can do damn well whatever you want Hardison. I am not gonna talk to you about this"

"Oh so there is a 'this'... that you don't wanna talk about"

"Dammit Hardison! Will you just get outta here?"

"Nope. I thought we already established that I am not goin anywhere till you tell me what the heck is going on"

"Then you can just stand there for all I care. I have breakfast to make and I am gonna go do it"

As Eliot turned to the counter and attempted to gather and wash all vegetables and mushrooms for the omelets that he'd planned to make that morning, he could hear Hardison climb onto the counter top behind him and start swinging his legs. His size eleven feet hitting against the wooden cabinet doors that the hitter himself had so lovingly fixed not four months ago, along with the irritating beat boxing he was doing as an accompaniment, got on his already close to shredding nerves.

Right about two minutes later, Eliot Spencer was in the danger of losing control of his chef's knife that was chopping up onions, and flinging it at the happily noisy hacker. While struggling to get rid of comforting visions of lopping off his head in one fell swoop with the knife which he knew he could throw with eyes closed and still hit his intended target, Eliot physically tried to control his temper as he closed his eyes and counted to a hundred... first in Russian and then in Mandarin.

"Dammit Hardison! Just stop it with the knocking and beat boxing or I swear I will take your head off with this knife... and I don't even have to look to throw it right at you"

"Nope... I know you won't wantedly kill me... Nate won't let you... and I know you care about all of us even if you don't show it... at all. Let me tell you this today... I care about you guys too Eliot. You are the only family I have after Nana and I just want you all to be happy. I just wanna help you Eliot. So please... tell me what is wrong so I know how I can help"

"Look Hardison... I appreciate your offer and you don't know how much it means to me that you actually care enough to offer to help me... but trust me on this, you can't help me with what is going on... I don't think anyone can"

"Let me decide that dude. Tell Dr. Hardison what the problem is and I am sure that together we can work out what to do... come on Eliot... just this once. Please man..."

If it was one thing that Eliot Spencer, hitter and retrieval specialist extraordinaire, had no control over... it was his reaction to the puppy dog eyes, pouty faces and 'please' from his team. And they knew it and used the fact to their maximum capabilities. Eliot knew of this too but he'd done nothing to cure himself of this problem and the team had taken it as his tacit approval to shamelessly take advantage of him when they wanted... within bounds of course.

Till date, Nate had used it once, to make Eliot cook him and Sophie a special dinner for Sophie's birthday... at the Ritz Carlton kitchens. Sophie had used it countless times when she needed his muscle to take up most of her shopping bags to the fourth floor offices of the team, which Hardison had thoughtlessly chosen as a walk up, with which, till the shopping bags occurrences, Eliot had had no troubles. Hardison usually used the puppy dog eyes and please to guilt Eliot into doing things he would otherwise not do... once he'd even been the hacker's wingman. That's another thing that that night had resulted in a sweet hookup for him and nada for the younger man. Parker though, was the most shameless when it came to using her power over Eliot. She used it for all sorts of things. From getting chocolate chip pancakes for dinner to making him go with her on her stake out of the Tiffany's store when they were on a job in NYC.

Now, Hardison seemed to be using the same tactics and to Eliot's disappointment, he was succeeding. Taking a deep breath, he hitter pondered the situation for a moment before reaching a rather uncomfortable decision.

"Okay... I will talk to you. But whatever I tell you goes no farther from here... got that?"

The hacker mimed a hand zipping his mouth shut, locking it and putting the key into Eliot's shirt pocket, patting the pocket after having put the imaginary key inside. That done, he sat back and smiled encouragingly at the hitter, who now looked like Hardison had, not five minutes ago... like he would pay money to be anywhere else. But he'd made a decision and he was going to tell Hardison most of it... not everything of course. It wouldn't do to disclose every little aspect of his life and emotions to the chatty hacker. Who knew where all this might end up. He hadn't even started talking and already he was regretting his decision.

Sighing, the hitter was just about to open his mouth when his phone went off. Obviously, it was silent and set on vibrate, so making a 'one moment' gesture with his hand, the retrieval specialist pulled the phone out of his pocket to find that Parker had texted him. Ever since the thief had used their momentary distraction that morning to slip off to god only knew where, Eliot hadn't been expecting to hear from her, especially after their disastrous talk the previous night. Now she was texting him... It wasn't in Parker's nature to send texts normally... she much preferred to talk to the person on the other end of the phone, even though most of her thought processes would be lost on anybody on the other side. So, a text from her could only signal that something had gone wrong. If not badly wrong, then horribly wrong came to mind as an option.

With slightly shaky hands, the hitter clicked on the icon notifying him of the text and promptly forgot to breathe

**Alice went down the rabbit hole. Find Bunny.**

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><p>Two seconds after getting the text, Eliot was out of the room, a minute after, his car was roaring down the roads of the city, heading for Parker's warehouse. He didn't even remember what he told Hardison. Of course, the code that Parker had typed in his text meant that he had to go alone. The reference to Alice in Wonderland was the code they had fixed with each other to denote that she was in trouble in something other than a job the team was pulling and that she needed him to help her... but not tell the rest of the team. The reference to Bunny meant that he had to go to her warehouse, where he knew that Parker lived and kept her stuffed rabbit, Bunny.<p>

He must've fed Hardison some fake excuse sort of story, it would be fine. In fact, if he thought that Eliot had left to avoid whatever confrontation situation that was cropping up between them, all the better for him. He wouldn't have to give too much of an explanation later. That was the thing going through his mind when his truck trundled to a stop a safe distance from the warehouse. Getting out and locking up the vehicle, Eliot proceeded to case the building in preparation for entry. Of course, there were only two points of entry and about a dozen different methods of egress. But it was the second way in that he was concentrating on. The keypad at the front was too exposed and the expected way in. The sensor panel at the back of the right side wall of the warehouse that, if one keyed in the correct ten digit passcode, shifted a panel in the corrugated wall two feet to the left in complete silence was more his focus. Other than Parker, he was the only one who knew of this access and this made it perfect for his entry point.

After ascertaining that no one was patrolling the periphery, Eliot keyed in the required ten digit code, the panel slid back and he stepped into the warehouse to find it in total darkness. That was when he made his one stupid mistake. He stepped forward before his eyes had completely gotten used to the darkness. Two steps to the front later, he heard a slight swish and then there was a huge slamming sound as a big metal door swung shut behind him.

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><p><em><strong>AN: Okay... so there it is. Another chapter done. To be frank, I wasn't very happy with this one. My Eliot seemed a little too OOC to me in the first few paragraphs. I almost expected him to sit down and start discussing cross stitch patterns with Sophie... **_

_**But I hope that overall it feels right... Please review your thoughts and ideas... They are extremely helpful and useful... and not to mention, make eminently satisfying reading for me :P**_

_**Lotsa love, Christmas cookies and Candy canes,**_

_**Macybear**_

_**P.S. Sorry for yet another cliffie. But I couldn't help myself... on the brighter side, this cliffie will definitely get resolved before new year. Promise :)**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**A/N: Hi there! I know that this is a considerably shorter chapter than my other ones... but I just had to post it before going off on a two day road trip. I will be back to post more on this and other stories by New Year's Day. Hope this will tide you over till then... **_

_**And let me apologize in advance for yet another cliffie (ducks shoes, rotten tomatoes, eggs and other assorted stuff thrown at her)**_

_**Hope you guys like it... please review :)**_

_**Thank you so much drjones... for giving me an amazing prompt that resulted in this story, and supporting it till the end. A biiiig hug for you!  
><strong>_

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><p><strong>Chapter 11<strong>

Eliot Spencer screwed up his eyes and blinked as the lights suddenly came on, flooding the relatively small area of what seemed to be a room, with more than enough light. Remembering he fact that he was in a warehouse that wasn't supposed to have rooms and also that he'd heard a metal door slamming shut behind him, the hitter turned two seconds after finding that he was inside... something.

The door... if it could be called that, was a monstrous wall of smooth metal, without any slots, keyholes or other ways of egress, effectively cutting off that as a possibility for leaving the... room. That possibility exhausted, Eliot turned back to survey his temporary prison and noticed a whole lot of things he must've missed only because his eyes had still not adjusted to the sudden outpouring of light when he'd turned to take stock of the door, not the least of it being a clearly excited blonde thief, sitting on the arm of a recliner that... yeah. It was the duplicate of the one in his office... if not the one in his office. He couldn't discount the fact that Parker could've very well stolen the one from his office in the intervening 15 minutes it took him to drive from there to her warehouse.

"So... What do you think?"

She was clearly excited... or nervous about something as her voice came out just a tad higher than it usually did. Eliot tore his eyes off of her form perching on the arm of a recliner that he still wasn't sure wasn't the one in his office, and let his eyes run over all the other... things he could see inside the... room.

Obviously, there were some other points of interest. She had tried to make the atmosphere as comforting to him as possible. That, he could begin to process, as he spied two cases of his favorite beer, the... walls, if they could be called that, done in a color scheme duplicated from that in his office. But what interested him the most, in fact it would draw anybody's attention, not just the hitter's... was the fairly humongous digital timer on one wall, counting down happily from what appeared to be one hour and thirty minutes. It was now down two minutes and fifty seconds, at around an hour and twenty seven minutes.

"Parker... I am not even going to start with the most obvious question and go with... what the heck is that timer about?"

"Oh that... that is the amount of time we have here before the oxygen runs out"

The deadpan delivery of the time limit on their lives kinda threw the hitter off his game for a bit and silence reigned in the... room as he stared at the blonde woman wide eyes for about fifteen seconds. Gathering his wits to himself, the hitter's eyes narrowed, as he studied the carefully tempered excitement in the face of the little thief almost vibrating with the emotions as she perched on the recliner in front of him and the fact that where her warehouse floor would, there appeared to be a metal encased... room, with her inside it, with a running timer counting down from an hour and thirty minutes

"Okay... here's a fun question... What the hell is going on Parker?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, let's see... I mean why is there a steel encased room in your warehouse?... why are you inside it? Why am I inside it? and why are we trapped here with a freakin' timer countin down the minutes I have to live like a freakin' new year's eve countdown?"

As a testament to how far she had come since her beginning days with the team, Parker had the decency to blush, as she answered

"Do you remember what I said about making sure you listened to me? Well... This it it... You are now a captive audience, so that I can make sure you listen to everything I say without the possibility of you bashing through stuff and walking out like you would, if we were anywhere else."

"Sooo... you basically kidnapped me"

Even though the hitter's voice sounded deceptively normal, Parker could almost feel the anger radiating off of him in waves. But she hadn't learned to work with him in all these years by being afraid of his temper and though right now wasn't the time to test its limits, she couldn't help but take a little jab

"If it makes any difference, you walked right into the trap. But for all intents and purposes, it would seem so... yes."

There were a few moments when she thought he might actually lose control and bash his fists through what she knew to be a foot and a half of solid, reinforced steel. Watching him try and rein in his temper was like watching Bruce Banner trying to stop his transformation into Hulk. An observation that made her smile, remembering Hardison and his fondness for animation series and how he had pointed out that sometimes Eliot was like the Hulk... especially when he wasn't in the mood to talk.

"You are in a chamber that is made of a foot and a half of solid, triple reinforced steel with a titanium infused matrix. I wouldn't suggest trying any sort of physical assault at it, no matter how angry you are... I am your only way out of here and I am not letting either of us outside before you hear me out."

Though she had meant it as a warning, it had come out sounding like a bit of superior gloating, at least that was how it had sounded paired with her previous statement. Wincing a little bit at just how much damage she caused without actually meaning to, Parker prepared herself for a full, frontal assault from the hitter, peeking at him through her eyelashes to ascertain his mood at the moment.

Eliot could literally feel his temper rising to the occasion. Parker had made a huge mistake... she'd let herself be locked in a steel vault with him, while he was angry and without thinking, she'd set him on to the path to near incandescent rage. He could just tear into her right now and it would be over real soon... too soon for anyone to even understand what had happened and that would be the end of it all. But then, a stray thought intruded into his enjoyment of his plans for her quick and decisive death... the fact that she had actually gone through so much trouble to have a huge steel vault brought to her warehouse, just so that she could have him as her captive audience for whatever she deemed important enough for her to convey. The thought both brought down his rage to a manageable level of simmering anger, as well as teased his dormant sense of curiosity.

Parker could almost pin point the moment when Eliot decided one way or the other. His shoulders relaxed... not too much... just a bit, his eyes which had been glowing in anger calmed down enough to just emit sparks of irritation intermittently and his fists, which had been prepared to punch holes through steel, relaxed enough for his fingers to flex. Ironically, there was a tiny part of Parker that found itself becoming disappointed at not having been privy to a private display of Eliot Spencer's rage, while most of her relaxed along with the hitter, thankful that something had managed to make him overlook her runaway tongue

"Get out of the chair"

"W-What?"

"Get. Out. Of. The. Chair"

Though all the words were separated by a second of silence in between, Parker could swear she heard him growl once or twice in the middle. It caused her to fairly bolt out of her perch on one arm of the chair and scamper to one side as Eliot strode to it and seated himself comfortably before turning back to her

"Alright. You now have me where you wanted me... as your captive audience. I suggest you make it quick because your little countdown timer seems very intent on moving towards zero. We have about an hour's worth of oxygen... get going on your explanation and make it fast"

He might've been amused at the petrified expression descending on her face, had she not been stupid enough to set a timer on their existence.

"What?"

The word was delivered more as a flat, ' I-know-the-answer-to-that-but-please-God-let-it-not-be-that' tone, than a legitimate question.

"I-I... Oh... I totally forgot. I was so involved in setting the trap for you and getting you in here that I forgot to make sure that I actually had something to say to you at the end of it"

"Un... believable"

"B-but wait. I know what I have to say... I've been thinking about it for almost two weeks now and I should be able to say it without practice or anything like that don't you think?"

"You tell me..."

Parker watched mutely as Eliot Spencer sank down even more into the cushions of the recliner, made himself comfortable and brushing off imaginary specks of dust from his sleeves, gave her a look. One the included the famous arched eyebrow that Parker had, by some mischief of chance, never been an audience to before. She'd heard of it... a couple of times from Sophie and a lot more from Hardison, but she'd never been subjected to it till now. Now that she had seen it, Parker could start to understand exactly what they had been speaking about when they said it made you feel exactly two inches tall.

She'd never seen Eliot this way. She'd known him for almost three years now and the only mode she'd seen him in was angry, angrier, raging and last but definitely not the least, the volcano. Thankfully, the volcano mode had been active only once in the last three years and the whole team had to take a necessary vacation after that occurrence. So this, to her was a completely new and scary side of Eliot Spencer. To say that he was completely freaking her out with his calmness would be a huge understatement. Parker had never felt so out of control in front of anyone before.

Then she saw him glance at the wall to her left and followed his eyes to the big digital timer counting down... it was now at around fifty minutes. Some corner of her brain was telling her that pretty soon, around the thirty minute mark to be exact, breathing would start to become difficult. She had a lot to say and it would be doubly difficult to say it all when she was fighting for breath and she would rather not open the vault door before she'd said everything she had to say. So taking a deep breath, Parker started

"F-First off... I wanna say I'm sorry. I'm sorry I hit you on the head with the crowbar, I am sorry I ran you over with the car and I am so sorry that I told you to get over it. I didn't mean to do any of that"

"Wait... I get how you didn't mean to hit me with a car or a crowbar... they might've been accidents, but how are you going to justify not meaning it when you told me to get over it?"

"That's just it. I totally didn't mean to say something like that. I-I just panicked so much that day and said something completely different from what I'd actually intended to say. It's like some kind of defense mechanism or something... it's something that hasn't been that much of a problem till now... till I met you."

With that little reveal, Eliot finally started looking interested... and Parker started looking just as discomfited. She looked like she was gonna stop, so Eliot decided to give her a little encouragement

"Go on..."

"Look... this is not easy for me and... just don't make fun of me okay?... It's hard enough to say things to you"

"Hey... I'm not makin' fun of you darlin'... just figured you could use a li'l encouragement.. Go on then... I promise not to make fun of you if it'll help"

"Thanks... going on... You know that I've never had a stable family background since I was like eight or something. I didn't think that it had too much of an impact on my life till I met you guys. In the beginning, I thought that since all of you were thieves like me, I would fit right in with you... but only after we started working together did I see just how much I was different from... everybody. Just how much I didn't fit in, just how awkward I was in the group."

"You were nothin like that darlin'"

"J-Just let me finish Eliot... I don't know if I'll be able to tell you all of this if I stop now."

At his silent nod and encouraging smile, Parker continued

"Whatever you might say Eliot... I knew that I didn't fit in. I was like a freaking Picasso in the middle of an impressionist gallery"

Eliot's mouth lifted in one corner at the art reference but he refrained from commenting for fear of derailing her thought process

"I could well be the best thief in the world, but I was literally nothing more than that... I couldn't even function properly in a social setting Eliot! I had never had a friend, never made one before I met you guys. And the biggest thing is that before I met you guys, it didn't even register on my radar that I was so different. I knew what I had to do to get the job done and I did it... and nothing more. My life was one heist after another, not even stopping in the middle to figure out how much money I had made on that particular job before I had to pull another one. Till date, I don't really know how I made half the money that is stashed in some of the locations where I keep my money"

As she spoke, Eliot could feel himself identifying with what she was saying. It wasn't as obvious as in her case, but being a part of the Leverage Associates team, had changed him too... in so many ways.

"Till I met you, nothing other than money registered as being important in life. I had no... life Eliot. It was so difficult for me to deal with the fact that I was so... different in the beginning when we started working together and come to terms with the fact that I would have to change myself if I wanted to fit in. And for the first time in my life... I did. I wanted to fit in. I liked being a part of this team... this family. Nate and Sophie are always so in tune with each other and so protective of the rest of us, they were like what I'd heard from other people how parents acted... I'd never been happier than when I figured out that I was part of a family now... whether any of you wanted it or not... we were a family in a lot of ways that mattered and it was probably the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me."

"Hardison... he became the wacky brother that I'd always wanted... there was this one boy who I'd met in an orphanage when I was around ten years old... he was quite a bit like Hardison and that was the only time I actually tried to stay at that orphanage so that I could stay with him. So when so many years later, I met Hardison and he was everything I'd wanted in a brother, I didn't know how to feel about it. He was the first guy I connected with on the team you know... I was suddenly forming emotional ties with people, depending on others for my happiness and it scared me like nothing before. I could happily jump from the tallest building in the world but talking to people, understanding their emotions and trying not to hurt them was like the scariest thing I'd ever done."

Eliot could see just how much it was costing her to reveal her innermost thoughts and feelings to him... he could see it, feel it and he resented the fact that she should have to do this alone. Overriding the part of his brain that was yellin at him to get out when he still had time, Eliot gave in to the impulse and reaching out, took one of Parker's hands in his and squeezed lightly, telling her without words just how much he appreciated the effort she was making on her part. Her breathing hitched, but she sent a watery, albeit beautiful smile his way before she continued

"If understanding that Nate and Sophie were my parental figures and finding that I liked having Hardison fill a brother's role in my life were tough, reconciling myself to what you meant to me, was probably my biggest challenge"

She took a deep breath, her courage faltering at just how much she was going to have to reveal without the safety net of the knowledge of his feelings but he squeezed her hand again and she found the strength to continue

"What do you mean darlin?"

"I-I don't know how to say it... I've never said anything like this before... never even thought that-"

"Just say whatever it is you want to say and we'll go from there... okay?"

"Okay."

"..."

Parker risked a glance at the hitter who sat holding her hand tenderly in his and with all the thoughts and emotions swirling around in her brain, she just blurted her answer out

"I'm in love with you"

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><p><em><strong>AN: So... yeah. I stopped there. Sorry again :)**_

_**But on the brighter side, I'll be back soon with an update. That will most probably be the last chapter of this story... I've decided to end on a fluffy note... they so deserve it now... right?**_

_**I hope that you enjoyed this chapter :)**_

_**Please review... it is so amazing to read your thoughts and ideas about the story... even one review makes me happier than a kid at Christmas!**_

_**So with the promise of a fluff fest in the near future, here's a wish for everyone to have a great New Year!**_

_**Lotsa luv and Champagne Cookies (for the new years eve party)**_

_**Macybear**_


	12. Chapter 12

_**A/N: Hi there!... So here it is... the last chapter of 'Getting Over It'. I had so much fun writing it that it is an incredibly sad and at the same time extremely fulfilling moment for me. I have loved playing with the characters and storyline over the last few months... hope all you readers enjoyed it just as much as I have.**_

_**But as all good things must come to an end, so does this one. I would like to thank drjones, for her amazing prompt that gave birth to this story... without your idea, this fic might not even be in existence. I owe you majorly for that... Thank you so so so much for that... and your amazing support**_

_**I would also like to thank all my supporters, who stuck by my side through everything... Mercedes, Katie... everyone else... Thank you so much for all your support and encouragement. I love you guys :)**_

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 12<strong>

_"I'm in love with you"_

The blonde thief's blurted confession hung in the air between them, the only visible change in the room caused by the timer counting down from what appeared to be thirty five minutes now. As the seconds passed by and she could hear no reactions forthcoming from Eliot, Parker very slightly tilted her head up so that she could peek at his face to see if she could discern anything from his expression. Eliot was staring at her, his eyes on her face but his thoughts clearly somewhere else, visibly shocked from what he had heard.

"Oh God! I didn't mean to say that either... l-look... let's just forget I said anything and just... just... I don't know... jus-"

"Say it again"

Parker, who'd still been involved in her messily chaotic thought process, already searching for a way to make up for the mistake she'd made by confessing her feelings when she didn't know of his, wasn't expecting Eliot to say anything... so obviously, she was ill prepared for his demand

"What?"

"What you just said... say it again Parker..."

She didn't know what to make of it. Was he making her repeat it because he wanted to hear it again or was he just making sure that he'd heard what he had... For probably the first time in a long time, the thief wasn't sure of what to do. Even when she'd been wrong about some things in the past, she'd known exactly what to do... even when she and Eliot had been on bad terms or fighting with each other, she knew what was going on and what she was needed to do... but right now, she had no idea whether she should repeat her premature declaration of love

"Please Parker... I need to listen to you saying it again..."

It was the please that did it. Eliot Spencer, a man who never asked for anything... a man who'd never let himself be in a position where he needed to ask someone else for something, was now pleading with her

"I-I... "

The last time she'd faltered due to lack of courage, his hand had just squeezed hers and she'd felt better... but this time, if she expected the same sort of treatment, she didn't get it. She got more... a whole lot more.

One second, Parker was perched on the low side table next to the single recliner in the room facing the hitter and the next, she was hauled into his strong embrace and pulled onto the chair and into his lap. Once she was in a fairly stable position and he became sure that she wouldn't go tumbling off of his lap, Eliot's hand came up to her chin, tipped it up quite unceremoniously and before Parker could even make any sense of what was happening, she found herself looking into his sparkling cerulean eyes at a very close range.

Parker had just a couple of moments to register the emotions swirling in his eyes, his warm breath on her face, his strong hands... one wrapped around her waist and the other in her hair and the utter security she felt in his arms, before his face descended even closer. As she felt the tips of his soft brown hair tickle her face, she closed her eyes involuntarily, enjoying the multitude of sensations Eliot had managed to generate in her body, just by holding her close to him. But then all thoughts fled, her brain shut down as she felt the warmth of his lips finally descending on hers, his mouth fitting over hers in such a way that promptly wiped out everything from her world but the two of them.

Parker's hands shifted all on their own, one clutching on to his plaid shirt as if to stop him from moving away from her while the other hand burrowed into his gloriously soft and silky hair... hair, which till now, the hitter had allowed no one... absolutely no one to touch. Eliot groaned at the feel of her fingers running through his hair, her hand pulling on it lightly, exerting a pleasurable pressure on his scalp. Holding her tighter and tighter to his body, the hitter shifted slightly on the recliner, giving himself enough room to maneuver in such a way so as to deepen and prolong their kiss

The two thieves remained wrapped up in their first kiss with each other for the next thirty or so seconds till breathing became sort of an issue. Even as they broke apart, neither moved too much... Eliot's kisses simply moved from her lips to roving over her jawline, her ear and the line of Parker's neck. Parker wasn't too disappointed at losing the feeling of his lips sealed over hers when she was squirming due to the soft, biting kisses that were being peppered all over the curve of her neck and shoulder. She was just content to stay there, and bask in the feelings that Eliot's actions were creating in her... both physical and emotional.

Any physical encounter that the thief'd had before, had never involved so many emotions on her part and had never engendered so many feelings inside her. Before, where she would've feared this level of involvement, now she reveled in it. She knew without his telling, just how much Eliot Spencer felt for her. It was in his every touch, every kiss and every caress, the way he was holding her, the way he looked at her... in every thing about him. It amazed her just how much the hitter was able to show what he felt, just by his actions alone. For someone who claimed to feel almost nothing when involved in jobs and taking down bad guys, Eliot Spencer was demonstrating a level of attachment and affection that she'd never thought she would see... let alone directed towards herself.

Even as she marveled at the amount of feeling he was able to awaken in her in response to his ministrations, she felt rather than saw Eliot raise his head to look into her eyes... and promptly lost her train of thought. The sheer amount of emotions in his eyes, the warm oceans of simple, uncomplicated love that radiated from the cerulean depths literally rocked her. Parker could feel the breath catching in her throat at the sheer extent of his feelings, the calm, assured-ness of their strength and longevity and the pleasure of having heard her own declaration

"If there is still any doubt over this... I'm in love with you too... have been for a long time"

Though she had known the truth of this statement for some time now, hearing him say it was unlike anything the little thief had experienced before... so she couldn't retort with anything other than a prosaic

"Really?... a-are you sure? I mean-"

Eliot pressed a finger on her lips, effectively hushing her and when she stopped, replaced the finger with his lips for a soft but passionate kiss before he leaned back to look at her

"Yes I am sure. I love you... I have for a long time... even when I thought you were twenty pounds of crazy I loved you"

With all the happiness and relief she was feeling, Parker didn't have enough emotion left to fake anger at his little 'twenty pounds of crazy' comment. It might very well become her second favorite words that he said to her... right next to the 'I love you' on the list of all time favorite Eliot quotes. So all she did was shake her head a bit, smile a lot more and burrow into the safety and warmth of his chest while tightening her arms around him. Eliot adjusted his position on the recliner so that both of them could sit comfortably and tightening his own arms around her, pulled a little bit closer. Settling her head comfortably on his shoulder, Parker felt Eliot's heartbeat thud reassuringly under her ear and heard him let out a happy sigh. As she snuggled in even closer, a thought struck

"Eliot?..."

"Hmmm?... What is it?"

"You said that you've been in love with me for a long time... since when?"

As she turned her head to look him in the eye, Parker had the rare opportunity to see the hitter flush a dull red

"I... I actually don't know..." he mumbled into her hair, burying his face into the golden mess

"What?"

"Yeah... I can't actually pin point the moment I fell in love with you... or the thing that made me fall in love... I... I think it just happened."

"What do you mean?"

"Like at first, I just thought you were like a really big risk for the whole team... I mean looking at the fact that you'd never worked as part of a team before, I knew that you would have trouble fitting in and following orders... The first job, I actually thought that you might be the one factor that would make it all go up in smoke."

At her injured expression, Eliot paused to gift her pixie nose a small kiss and smiling softly, continued

"But after working with you on some more jobs, I began to understand just how dedicated you were to the job. The only thing that stood out to me then, was the fact that you were so different. That's when I started noticing you. I'd never met anyone... who was so unused to interacting with others but it was also obvious that you knew about it and were trying to fit in..."

Her fingers tightened around his hand in a silent expression of thanks which he returned before returning to his narrative

"Over the next year, any issues I'd ever had with your work all went away... you were so focused on the job and very thorough with everything. You gave us no opportunity to point to you if and when things went wrong... I really did feel bad for you when we took that horse job... but even then, you were utterly professional under all that trash talk. Every job we pulled just made me notice you in a different way. Let's just say that I was thinkin' a whole lot about you quite early in our partnership. Then Nate made us partners on a lot of heists and I found out that we worked very well together.. It just pushed you up in all my estimations. Sure you had a bunch of crazy quirks... but who doesn't?... just because your ideas were different didn't mean that they were wrong... and that was what took me a long time to get used to"

"And then..."

"And then came Hardison..."

"Wha?... What does he have to do with this?"

"Parker, hun... you were probably the only person in the world who had no idea that Hardison likes... liked... you"

"Really?... Oh my god!... I.. I had absolutely no idea... oh..."

"Yeah... we all knew you didn't. It's okay. It was quite obvious you weren't comfortable with stuff like normal flirting, after the fork thing... And Hardison is not the most straight forward guy when it comes to things like this... So it's okay... not your fault. But it was not helping me... I guess that was the thing that kinda pushed me over the edge lately... you know"

"What do you mean... Is that why you were so mean to me?"

"Well excuse me here... but if my memory doesn't fail me, you were the one who told me to get over it... you treated me like I wasn't important and it just got to me... the Hardison thing was more like a background problem till you pushed me off the edge with that..."

"I'm-"

"It's okay Parker... we're not going into that again. I now understand your side of it... It's fine... don't feel bad about it now. In fact, if all this hadn't happened, we might still be goin around not doing anything about our feelings, right?"

"I guess... yeah. I wouldn't have said anything just because I would've been too scared of you not feeling the same way or maybe even making fun of me for it or something..."

The little blonde snuggled into his arms looked away, a slight flush crawling up her face at the admission

"Parker... Parker look at me..."

Eliot wasn't having any of that... from now on, Parker would have no doubt of how things stood between the two of them. Taking her face in between his hands, Eliot stared into her soft grey doe like eyes

"Parker... Let's just get one thing straight. I do love you... but even if I didn't, I would never have made fun of you or hurt you in any way. Even if I didn't love you like I do, I care too much about you and the rest of the team to hurt you... any of you like that"

"I know that... but knowing it doesn't stop the thoughts from occurring... or the nightmares"

"Oh darlin'... come here"

Pulling her even closer, Eliot pressed a soft kiss on Parker's forehead before settling back in the recliner with her close to him

"From now on, you'll never need to have such doubts or fears about this... This... whatever is between us, can go ahead just the way you want it to. No pressure, no expectations. It's just you and me babe. We can be anything you want... okay?"

"Y-yeah... Eliot?... W-What are we now?"

"What do you want us to be darlin'?"

The blonde thief thought about it for a moment, as if it was one of the most important things in the world

"I've never been someone's girlfriend..."

"Do you want to try being one?"

"Do you think I'll be able to be a girlfriend?... I mean... what if I'm really bad at it?... after all I don't know anything about being a girlfriend... What if you start hating me?"

"Shhh... it'll be alright Parker... let me tell you a little secret shall I?"

"What?"

"I've never really been anyone's boyfriend since Aimee either... and we all know how that turned out don't we?"

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm sayin that since you've never been a girlfriend and I've never been a boyfriend, why don't we both try learning how to be one at the same time?... together?"

She looked into his eyes... the face that she knew almost as well as her own stared back at her, waiting for her reaction. The slight hint of apprehension in his face along with the hope made the decision for her. Nodding her head vigorously, Parker eliminated the distance between them, capturing his lips with hers in another long kiss, wordlessly telling him of her acceptance.

* * *

><p>As she pulled back, Eliot's eyes unwittingly fell on the digital timer that was now counting down from about twelve minutes and realized that the temperature inside the room.. vault, whatever, had increased a bit. Also, both of them were panting a little bit, and their make out sessions were not responsible for that<p>

"Umm.. Parker?.."

"Hmmm?..."

"Shouldn't we be doing something about getting out of here?... that timer is getting awfully close to zero..."

"Oh!... I forgot.."

The thief was off his lap and out of his reach in a second and paused only when she was standing next to the huge metallic door with an expression on her face that promised a secret and trouble for anyone and anything that came up against her.

"Come on!... come here Eliot... let me show you something"

Curiosity kindled, the hitter levered himself out of the comfortable couch and went to stand next to her opposite the steel door, his eyes searching for some mechanism that would make it possible for them to open it from the inside... but like he'd noticed before, the door seemed to be one smooth panel fo steel.

As he stared quizzically at Parker, the little thief seemed to be bouncing on her feet in anticipation of something. At his raised eyebrow, Parker smiled a bit sheepishly

"Promise me you won't get mad..."

"Wha- Why would I get mad Parker?"

But she was stubborn

"Promise..."

"Okay... I promise I won't get mad"

With that, she smiled again at him and very lightly, put pressure on the humongous door made of atleast ten inches of steel. Whatever reaction he'd been expecting, it certainly wasn't this... the door swung outward silently, as if it had been waiting for that slight pressure of her fingers... as if it was a door made of paper rather than a foot of titanium coated steel.

As it dawned on the hitter that the vault had never been locked from the outside, that they'd never been trapped inside and that they could've gotten out whenever either of them had wanted anytime over the last one and a half hours, he turned to glare at the thief, who was shuffling a little uncomfortably over at the corner. Stepping out of the vault, she turned back to him, her face apologetic and ready to make amends, Eliot felt his glare melt into oblivion

"I'm sorry Eliot... L-Look... I knew that you'd never stay if you weren't convinced taht you couldn't get out... and if you didn't stay long enough, I would never have been able to tell you what I wanted to say...I'm-"

"It's okay..."

"I'm... what?"

"I said... It's okay. I get it... there's no need to explain. But there is one thing though..."

"What is it?... anything if it means that you'll not be angry..."

"You know that this means war don't you?..."

"What do you mean?"

"Well darlin'... you pulled a prank on me... and girlfriend or not, I will get you back... you know that don't you?"

Parker's expression of apology morphed into one of horror as she recalled Eliot Spencer's capability for remembering scores and settling them. But before she had any time to react, Eliot had put an arm around her shoulder and was pulling her in the direction of the entrance to the warehouse

"Yessirrie... I'm gonna get my revenge on you and you'll never know when it's gonna come at ya... Oh it's gonna be so much fun. Now come on babe... Having a girlfriend is hungry business... let's go and get us something to eat"

"Oh can I get some chocolate chip pancakes?"

"Yeah, yeah... now come on"

As the two of them walked away, Eliot turned once, to look at the monstrous steel structure that'd had him trapped inside for the last couple of hours. It was a huge block of metal, about fourteen feet high and wide, the door fitted with a panel with a handprint scanner and three different voice panels. It was definitely a very high end vault and seemed to be something that only top secret facilities would use

"Parker... how did you come across this..thing?"

"What?... Bertha?... Oh she's been borrowed from the United States Government for the night"

She happily ignored the choking sounds emanating from the shocked hitter and proceeded to walk out the warehouse

"B-Borrowed?... Parker are you sayin that you stole that from a US Government facility? How the hell did you manage that?"

"No silly... I had a friend in the army... a guy who owes me something... I got in touch with him and made him airlift Bertha into my warehouse for tonight. She'll be back at her secure location tomorrow morning."

"How did you even come across something like... Bertha?"

"Oh... It was in Iraq... like ages ago. Bertha was actually commissioned by Saddam Hussein when he was president there.. he needed some place to store something that he'd stolen from the US Government. So obviously, I wanted it. I mean come on... if it is important enough to build Bertha for its safekeeping, it has to be important enough for me to steal it. But on my way, I was found by this guy... who worked for the US Army... and they made me a deal. So long story short, I stole the Declaration of Independence back from inside Bertha for them and in return, the US Government gave me money... lots of it... and wiped my records."

"The D-... Declaration of Independence?..."

Cue more shocked choking from Eliot and this time, Parker winced a little bit

"Oh... Oops... I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that..."

Their conversation faded out as they left the warehouse and stepped into Eliot's truck parked a couple of blocks away.

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><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

_**Two weeks later**_

"Eliot!... I am _**not**_ going to do this"

"Oh come on Parker... There is nothing to be afraid of here. You jump off buildings every day without worrying about anything. You can do this... now come on... sit up straight on the saddle, hold the reins properly and squeeze slowly with your feet"

"Eliot! Buildings don't bite, they don't kick... they don't move, they don't neigh... buildings can't throw you off you know... you have to jump off of them"

"Yes darlin'... I happen to know all the differences between a building and a horse. Now stop whining and do what I said..."

It was obvious from the hitter's voice that he was having trouble keeping himself from smiling. It was equally obvious from Parker's whiny tone that she was definitely not happy with the situation. Though Eliot had to admit... she looked pretty darn cute sitting on a horse, her face scrunched up in a scowl.

"But Eliot!... you know how I hate horses... why do I have to do this?"

"This is payback darlin'... you knew this was comin... so stop acting like a baby and come on... this'll be fun once you get into the rhythm of it..."

The wicked grin on his face would've normally made her want to lean across and plant a long, hot kiss on him, but as it was, she was on top of a (shudder) horse... and there was no way she was moving around or doing anything that would make the murderous animal go on a rampage and throw her off or something

"Eliot!..." she tried pleading again

"Oh come on Parker... you'll get over it" he said, smiling wickedly at her again, putting slight emphasis on the words she'd thrown at him a long time back.

This time she didn't hesitate. Pulling him closer by wrapping her fingers on his shirt and yanking, Parker leaned a bit to the left and fitted her mouth to his in a kiss that had the hitter reevaluate the advisability of a horse ride just at that moment.

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><p><em><strong>AN: So there it is. The story "Getting Over It" is officially over... (wiping happy tears) I will miss writing it.**_

_**The details about Bertha and the story behind it are all from Jeffery Archer's "Honor Among Thieves"... if you get your hands on it, read it... it makes good reading :)**_

_**I would appreciate feedback from you guys like Parker appreciates money... a whole freakin' lot. So any sort of feedback, new story ideas... anything and everything is welcome. **_

_**Please review, it only takes half a minute of your time and makes my day... :)**_

_**Lotsa luv and cupcakes**_

_**Macybear**_


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